Meaning & use
dueling
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“dueling” is a form of “duel”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
verbintransitive
The -ing form of duel: fighting a formal contest between two people, traditionally with weapons, or competing closely one-on-one.
Grammar: No object; often followed by with: dueling with a rival.
Patterns
- dueling with someone
- be dueling over something
The two senators were dueling over the budget on live television.
Two young chess masters are dueling for the championship title.
In the old story, the noblemen were dueling at dawn.
adjectivebefore a noun
Describing two sides, people or things that are competing or opposing each other directly.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: dueling narratives, not narratives that are dueling.
Patterns
- dueling banjos
- dueling narratives
The dueling guitarists traded solos for ten minutes.
Voters heard dueling claims from both campaigns.
The festival features a dueling pianos show every Saturday.
Common combinations
- dueling pianos
- We spent the evening at a dueling pianos bar.
- dueling narratives
- The report explores the dueling narratives about the city's decline.
- dueling banjos
- The street musicians played a lively dueling banjos tune.
- dueling pistols
- The museum displays a pair of antique dueling pistols.
- dueling opinions
- Dueling opinions filled the comments section.
Synonyms and how they differ
- competing
- Competing is general and need not involve just two sides or direct confrontation, unlike dueling.
- clashing
- Clashing stresses conflict or incompatibility, while dueling suggests a back-and-forth contest.
- rival
- Rival describes the relationship of opponents, whereas dueling describes the active exchange between them.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: dueling or dual?
dueling vs dual
Dual means having two parts and is an adjective; dueling means competing or fighting one-on-one.
Practice
Which spelling is standard in American English for the -ing form of duel?
Choose one answer.
American English uses a single l: dueling. Duelling is the British form, and dualling is a different word spelling.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dueling”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.