measure swords with someone

English

Verb

measure swords with someone (third-person singular simple present measures swords with someone, present participle measuring swords with someone, simple past and past participle measured swords with someone)

1. To try someone's skill in the use of the sword.
2. (figurative) To match one's abilities against an antagonist's.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “measure swords with someone”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)