WAR – (1785)
WAR. n. s.
1. War may be defined the exercise of violence under sovereign command against withstanders ; force, authority, and resistance, being the essential parts thereof. Violence, limited by authority, is sufficiently distinguished from robbery, and the like outrages ; yet, in consisting in relation towards others, it necessarily requires a supposition of resistance, whereby the force of war becomes different from the violence inflicted upon slaves or yielding malefactors.
WAR n. s.
4. The profession of arms.
5. Hostility ; state of opposition ; act of opposition.