Con·test v. t. [imp. & p. p. Contested; p. pr. & vb. n. Contesting.]
 1. To make a subject of dispute, contention, litigation, or emulation; to contend for; to call in question; to controvert; to oppose; to dispute.
    The people . . . contested not what was done.   --Locke.
    Few philosophical aphorisms have been more frequenty repeated, few more contested than this.   --J. D. Morell.
 2. To strive earnestly to hold or maintain; to struggle to defend; as, the troops contested every inch of ground.
 3. Law To make a subject of litigation; to defend, as a suit; to dispute or resist; as a claim, by course of law; to controvert.
 To contest an election. Polit. (a) To strive to be elected. (b) To dispute the declared result of an election.
 Syn: -- To dispute; controvert; debate; litigate; oppose; argue; contend.
 E·lec·tion n.
 1. The act of choosing; choice; selection.
 2. The act of choosing a person to fill an office, or to membership in a society, as by ballot, uplifted hands, or viva voce; as, the election of a president or a mayor.
    Corruption in elections is the great enemy of freedom.   --J. Adams.
 3. Power of choosing; free will; liberty to choose or act. “By his own election led to ill.”
 4. Discriminating choice; discernment. [Obs.]
    To use men with much difference and election is good.   --Bacon.
 5. Theol. Divine choice; predestination of individuals as objects of mercy and salvation; -- one of the “five points” of Calvinism.
    There is a remnant according to the election of grace.   --Rom. xi. 5.
 6. Law The choice, made by a party, of two alternatives, by taking one of which, the chooser is excluded from the other.
 7. Those who are elected. [Obs.]
    The election hath obtained it.   --Rom. xi. 7.
 To contest an election. See under Contest.
 To make one's election, to choose.
    He has made his election to walk, in the main, in the old paths.   --Fitzed. Hall.
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