Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
enter the lists en · VERB
Meanings
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(UK, figuratively) To take part in a struggle or conflict.
...my father, who was infinitely the better politician, and took the lead as far of my uncle Toby in the cabinet, as my uncle Toby took it of him in the field——convinced him, that if the king of Spain and the Emperor went together by the ears, England and France and Holland must, by force of their pre-engagements, all enter the lists too...
1761, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXV, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume III, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC, pages 132-133:
Forms