debated

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of debate.

   The committee debated the proposal for several hours before voting.

   Historians have long debated the true causes of the war.

   Note

   The past form serves both kinds of debating: the public kind (the senate debated the bill) and the private kind, where one person weighs a choice alone (she debated whether to go). Because the verb works with or without an object, debated can also stand alone, as in they debated until midnight. Before a noun, the participle shades into the adjective meaning "unsettled". The older meanings "to fight" and "to strive for" are obsolete.

2. 2
   adjective

   Argued over and not yet settled, still open to discussion.

   The heavily debated proposal split the committee right down the middle.

   Her dissertation tackles one of the most fiercely debated questions in economics.

   Similarcontested, disputed, controversial

   Oppositesettled, undisputed, uncontroversial

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