opposing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of oppose.

   Activists are opposing the dam project through the courts.

   Opposing the budget cuts united the whole department.

   Note

   Here the word is still a verb, so it takes an object: opposing the dam, opposing the cuts. That object is the quickest test against the side-marking adjective. After be it forms the progressive (they are opposing the plan), and it can head a sentence as a gerund subject. The verb's older spatial meaning, to set one thing over against another, survives too, as in opposing a thumb to the fingers.

2. 2
   adjective

   On the opposite side; acting or arguing against another person, group, or idea.

   Both opposing factions agreed to a ceasefire before dawn.

   The debate pitted two opposing views on how to fund the school.

   Similarrival, conflicting, opposite, contrary, competing

   Oppositeallied, compatible

   Note

   A side-taking word that usually stands before its noun: opposing armies, opposing teams, opposing players. It does not grade. Nothing is more opposing or most opposing, because a side is either the other one or it is not. When the difference you mean is one of degree, choose another word; this one simply marks the other camp.

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