Skip to definition.
Get the FREE one-click dictionary software for Windows or the iPhone/iPad and Android apps


Verb: encounter  in'kawn-tu(r)
  1. Accidentally be in the same place and interact with (someone)
    "How nice to encounter you again!";
    - meet, run into, run across, come across, see
     
  2. Come upon, as if by accident; meet with
    "We encounter this idea in Plato";
    - find, happen, chance, bump
     
  3. Be beset by
    "The project encountered numerous financial difficulties";
    - run into
     
  4. Experience as a reaction
    - meet, receive
     
  5. Contend against an opponent in a sport, game, or battle
    "Princeton encounters Yale this weekend";
    - meet, play, take on
Noun: encounter  in'kawn-tu(r)
  1. A minor short-term fight
    - brush, clash, skirmish
     
  2. A casual or unexpected convergence
    "there was a brief encounter in the hallway";
    - meeting
     
  3. A casual meeting with a person or thing
    - coming upon
     
  4. A hostile disagreement face-to-face
    - confrontation, showdown, face-off, smackdown [N. Amer, informal]

Derived forms: encountering, encountered, encounters

Type of: be, combat, connection, connexion [Brit], convergence, disagreement, experience, fight, fighting, have, joining, scrap, undergo

Encyclopedia: Encounter