warring

1. 1
   adjective

   Engaged in a war against one another, or marked by a readiness for conflict.

   The warring nations finally agreed to a temporary ceasefire.

   Generations grew up knowing nothing but the warring states around them.

   Similarfighting, belligerent, hostile, rival, opposing

   Oppositepeaceful, friendly

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of war.

   The kingdoms were warring long before the treaty was signed.

   Warring over resources, the factions ignored every call for peace.

   Note

   Its natural partner is with, which names the foe: factions warring with each other, or with a rival power. The verb is mostly intransitive, but it can also take an object in the older sense of "wage," as in warring a contest. Before a noun (warring nations) the form has settled into the adjective. When it names the activity itself, it is the noun for fighting.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The activity or process of engaging in war or armed conflict.

   Decades of warring between the rival clans drained the region's wealth.

   The endless warring made trade across the border impossible.

   Similarfighting, warfare, conflict, feuding, hostilities

   Oppositepeace

   Note

   An old noun rather than a modern coinage: Middle English already had werrynge, built from war with the -ing ending. It takes a plural, warrings, for a long run of separate quarrels. The Church of England Magazine of 1842 complains of "the endless warrings of virulent sectarians", a reminder that the fighting need not be armed. Doctrinal and factional feuds count too.

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