enter the lists

verb

To take part in a struggle or conflict.

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Meanings

verbenter the lists (third-person singular simple present enters the lists, present participle entering the lists, simple past and past participle entered the lists)

present singular third person enters the lists · participle present entering the lists · participle past entered the lists · past entered the lists

  1. UKfigurativelyTo take part in a struggle or conflict.
    1 more example

    ...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
Cite this entry
APA

enter the lists. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/enter%20the%20lists

MLA

“enter the lists.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/enter%20the%20lists. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “enter the lists,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/enter%20the%20lists.

Source: enter the lists on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.