champion

plural champions

1. An ongoing winner in a game or contest.

   The defending champion is expected to defeat his challenger.

   1 more example

   Curry, a four-time NBA champion with the Warriors, played for the Wildcats for three seasons between 2006 and 2009, where he was twice named conference player of the year.

   2025 March 11, Matias Grez, “Steph Curry accepts assistant general manager role at alma mater Davidson College”, in CNN

2. Someone who is chosen to represent a group of people in a contest.

   Barcelona is eligible to play in FIFA Club World Cup as the champion of Europe.

3. Someone who fights for a cause or status.

   Emmeline Pankhurst was a champion of women's suffrage.

   1 more example

   Specific outcomes from this policy included the appointment of a Digital Champion to drive forward the efforts to get more of the excluded to be included.

   2012, Sue Watling, Jim Rogers, Social Work in a Digital Society, page 34

   Synonyms: paladin, knight

4. Someone who fights on another's behalf.

   champion of the poor

5. biologyA particularly notable member of a plant species, such as one of great size.

   There was a news clipping there with a photo of a magnificent American elm, which had just been named the champion for its species, the largest of its kind.

   2013, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1st edition, Milkweed Editions, →ISBN, →LCCN, pages 43–44

   2 more examples

   Pictured above is an actual photograph of a Regal Lily that famed all over the world. It's a champion plant—because in one season it produced a total of 89 blooms from one bulb, an amazing record among lilies.

   1938 November 5, Puritan Cordage Mills, “Take a Lesson from a Lily”, in Elmer C. Hole, editor, American Lumberman, volume 65, number 3138, Chicago, page 55

   He [Matthew Olson] was searching for red maple trees to be tapped for syrup as part of the Stockton Maple Project when he came across the new champion tree.

   2022 February 10, Christopher Doyle, “Stockton professor, students discover largest 'champion tree' in New Jersey”, in The Press of Atlantic City, archived from the original on 10 Feb 2022

1. attributivenot comparableActing as a champion; having defeated all one's competitors.

   a champion bodybuilder

2. attributivenot comparableExcellent; beyond compare.
3. IrelandUKdialectalnot comparablepredicativeExcellent; brilliant; superb; deserving of high praise.

   "That rollercoaster was champion," laughed Vinny.

present singular third person champions · participle present championing · participle past championed · past championed

1. transitiveTo promote, advocate, or act as a champion for (a cause, etc.).

   While obviously championing the Bluebell [Railway], Beardmore is keen for the 'big railway' to consider utilising what preserved railways can provide.

   2024 April 3, Richard Foster, “Training the next generation of engineers”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 49

2. obsoletetransitiveTo challenge.

1. A surname.
2. A village in Vulcan County, Alberta, Canada.
3. A place in the United States:
   1. A ghost town in California.
   2. A township and unincorporated community therein, in Marquette County, Michigan.
   3. A township in Wilkin County, Minnesota.
   4. A census-designated place in Chase County, Nebraska.
   5. A town and hamlet in Jefferson County, New York.
   6. A township in Trumbull County, Ohio.
   7. An unincorporated community in the town of Green Bay, Brown County, Wisconsin.