challenge

Less common meanings

11. 11
    book removalnouncountable

    A formal or informal bid to get a book removed from a public library or school curriculum, or to restrict access to it.

    The association publishes a yearly list of the books that drew the most challenges.

    A challenge is not a ban; the board decides whether the book stays.

12. 12
    password checknouncountable

    A sentry's act of halting someone and demanding the countersign; by extension, a computer system's demand for a password or other proof of identity.

    The two ships had lost contact in the dark and nearly fired on each other before the challenge was answered.

    The server issues a challenge and checks the client's response against its key.

    Note

    A sentry's word that moved into computing. The demand for the countersign became a system's demand for a password. In both settings the challenge is only half of an exchange and waits for the right answer, which is why a server checks the reply it gets back against the answer it expects. The halting itself is the sentry's verb. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The computing sense extends the sentry's demand for identification. en.wiktionary.org
    • The server verifies the response using the authentication scheme's rules. In CHAP, it compares the response with a calculated expected hash value, rather than with the key itself. rfc-editor.org
13. 13
    halt (guard)verbtransitive

    In military use, to halt and demand the countersign from someone attempting to pass the lines.

    At the gate, a guard challenged the jeep and asked the driver for the password.

    Standing orders require the picket to challenge every approaching vehicle.

    Note

    Spoken at the picket line, usually as Who goes there? The construction challenge someone with a phrase names the words used. The person halted usually answers with the countersign, or is otherwise recognized, before passing. Standing orders can extend the duty to vehicles as well as people on foot. The halt and the demand form a single act, and the sentry must be satisfied of the person's right to pass. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • “Who goes there?” is an established military sentry challenge. cdn2.imagearchive.com
    • A countersign is not invariably required: the procedure also allows recognition without one. gutenberg.org
    • The challenge procedure can apply to vehicle occupants as well as pedestrians. cdn2.imagearchive.com
    • The guard must establish identity and authority to pass; a correct countersign alone does not establish either conclusively. gutenberg.org
14. 14
    duelnouncountable

    A demand that someone fight a duel, or the letter or message delivering that demand.

    Hamilton accepted Burr's challenge and died for it.

    A gentleman who refused a challenge was finished in society.

15. 15
    rejecting a jurornouncountablelaw

    In a trial, a lawyer's formal objection to a specific person sitting as a member of the jury.

    The defense raised a challenge against a juror who had once worked for the local police department.

    After the prosecution used its last challenges, the remaining jurors were sworn in.

    Similarobjection

16. 16
    verbtransitive

    In a trial, to formally object to a particular person serving as a juror.

    Either side may challenge a potential juror who seems unable to judge the case fairly.

    The prosecution challenged every juror who admitted reading about the case.

    Similarstrike

    Note

    Jury selection keeps verb and noun side by side: counsel challenges a juror, and the objection is itself a challenge. Two kinds are distinguished. A challenge for cause must rest on a reason, such as a juror's admitted bias about the case. A peremptory challenge ordinarily needs no stated reason. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Challenges for cause and peremptory challenges are two kinds of juror challenge. congress.gov
    • A challenge for cause requires a stated reason. nyed.uscourts.gov
    • Reading about the case alone is insufficient; prejudice or another legally sufficient ground must be established. supreme.justia.com
    • A peremptory challenge ordinarily requires no stated reason, but an explanation can be required when discriminatory use is challenged. congress.gov
17. 17
    verbUStransitive

    In US usage, to object to the acceptance of someone's vote, as on the ground that the person is not a qualified voter.

    Poll watchers who challenge a voter must state a reason recognized by state law.

    Dozens of ballots were challenged and set aside for review.

    Note

    The grammar is the odd part. The object is the voter, yet what is objected to is accepting that person's vote. Ballots can be challenged too, usually in the passive, and set aside for review. The objection itself takes the noun, so a poll watcher who challenges a voter has made a challenge at the polls. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Ballots can be challenged and set aside for review. sos.ca.gov
    • A poll watcher can challenge a voter's eligibility at the polls. pa.gov
18. 18
    nounUScountable

    An objection, raised when a person offers a ballot, that the person is not legally qualified to vote.

    A challenge at the polls must rest on personal knowledge, not suspicion.

    A poll watcher raised a challenge when the man's address did not match the one on the voter rolls.

    Similarobjection

    Note

    A US election-law term defined by its timing: the objection comes at the moment a person offers a ballot. What it questions is the voter's legal qualification, never the voter's choice. That is why it is aimed at a person standing at the polls rather than at a result already counted. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • In this US election-law sense, the objection is raised when a person offers to vote at the polls. codes.ohio.gov
    • The objection concerns the person's eligibility to vote, rather than their ballot selection. michigan.gov
19. 19
    exam for creditverbCanadaUStransitive

    In North American usage, to take an examination to receive credit for a course without taking the course.

    Students who already speak Spanish can challenge the introductory course and earn credit by passing its final exam.

    She already spoke fluent Spanish, so she decided to challenge the final exam instead of taking the course.

    Note

    A North American term from schools and professional training whose object can be the exam or the course: you challenge an exam to earn the credit without attending classes. It appears in Carol Gino's The Nurse's Story and in Maine's Legislative Record, and a fee often rides on it. Readers elsewhere may hear challenge an exam as disputing a grade, which is a quite different thing and closer to the "dispute" meaning. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • The object can also be the course: universities explicitly use 'challenge a course' for obtaining credit by examination. admissions.utah.edu
    • This use appears in The Nurse's Story by Carol Gino. en.wiktionary.org
    • The cited passage appears in Maine's House proceedings of March 28, 1996, page H-1921. lldc.mainelegislature.org
    • Challenge examinations commonly involve a fee. acu.edu
20. 20
    remove a judgenouncountable

    In law, the act of seeking to remove a judge, arbitrator, or similar figure for alleged bias or incapacity.

    The defense filed a challenge to the judge, claiming she had worked for the plaintiff's firm.

    A challenge to the presiding judge must be raised before the hearing begins.

    Note

    The procedural move against the decider personally, on grounds such as bias, conflict of interest or incapacity. It reaches beyond courtrooms to arbitrators and other semi-judicial figures, and it is a challenge of the person (a challenge of the arbitrator) which a court or another competent authority then rules on. The objection is to who is deciding, not to what has been decided.

21. 21
    nounrarecountable

    In law, rarely: a judge's interest in the outcome of a case, which disqualifies the judge from hearing it.

    Consanguinity in direct line is a challenge for a judge when he or she is sitting cases.

    Note

    Here the word names the disqualifying interest itself, not any step taken against it. Consanguinity in the direct line with a party is a challenge for a judge, so the challenge exists before anyone raises it. This use is rare, and easy to confuse with the move to remove a judge, which a party brings because of such an interest: one is the ground, the other the step.

22. 22
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To censure or blame someone.

    I may be more challenged for my inconsiderate Boldness

    1601, Pliny the Elder, The Historie of the World

    Note

    The accusing side of the ancestry behind the obsolete 'claim' verb: Latin calumnia meant a false accusation, and here the verb still blames. In Philemon Holland's 1601 English Pliny, the writer expects to be challenged for his inconsiderate boldness, fearing censure, not a contest. The pattern challenge someone for a fault is the signal to read it as blame. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

    • Challenge ultimately derives from Latin calumnia, connecting its accusing and claiming senses. en.wiktionary.org
    • Latin calumnia meant a false accusation. en.wiktionary.org
    • Challenge had obsolete senses meaning to claim and to censure or blame. en.wiktionary.org
    • The relevant English translation of Pliny the Elder was first published in 1601. collections.soane.org
    • Holland's 1601 translation reads: “challenged I may be more still for this my importune and inconsiderat boldnesse”. The supplied wording rearranges and omits words. penelope.uchicago.edu
    • Pliny is the speaker, anticipating censure for his boldness in presenting his books. penelope.uchicago.edu
    • The passage illustrates challenge someone for a fault in the sense of blame. penelope.uchicago.edu
23. 23
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To claim as due; to demand as a right.

    Challenge better terms.

    1712, [Joseph] Addison, Cato

    Note

    An obsolete verb that keeps the word's older sense of claiming. Latin calumnia meant a false accusation; by Middle English, kalange meant an accusation or a claim, and this verb is the claim side of that pair: demanding what one holds to be due. When Sempronius in Addison's Cato, a Tragedy says winning over Juba would challenge better terms, the verb means claim, not dare. In older texts, read it as claim when its object is something owed. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Challenge has an obsolete verb sense meaning to claim something due or demand it as a right. en.wiktionary.org
    • Latin calumnia meant a false accusation. en.wiktionary.org
    • Middle English kalange meant an accusation or a claim. en.wiktionary.org
    • Addison wrote Cato, a Tragedy. en.wikisource.org
    • In Act I, scene III, Sempronius tells Syphax that winning over Juba would recommend him to Caesar and secure better terms. The words are part of a conditional statement, not an imperative; challenge does carry the claiming sense. en.wikisource.org
24. 24
    noun

    In hunting, the opening and crying of hounds on first finding the scent of their quarry.