at war

1. Engaged in armed conflict; also, in a state of disagreement. This term may be used literally, usually of nations or smaller groups engaged in armed hostilities, as well as hyperbolically, describing a mild disagreement as “war,” and figuratively, for an inner conflict. For example, The Greeks and Turks have been at war for many years (literally); The two families were at war about the bill for the wedding reception (hyperbolic); and, as Shakespeare put it in Measure for Measure (2:2): “I am at war 'twixt will and will not” (inner conflict of indecision). [Late 1300s]

Example Sentences

The RSF has been at war with the regular army since April 2023.

Read more on Barron's

Home-building had stalled during the war, resulting in a serious housing shortage at war’s end.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The boat was affiliated with “Designated Terrorist Organizations,” Hegseth said, using the same language included in a confidential notice the Pentagon sent to congressional committees on Thursday declaring that the U.S. is at war with the drug gangs.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

At war’s end, Congress emphatically sided with Bates in a landmark 1866 Civil Rights Act that opened as follows: “All persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The succession plan is complicated by Lolohea’s sensitive nature and by two interfering relatives: the Tamahā, the king’s magically endowed aunt, who in certain matters outranks him; and the king’s vengeful brother ‘Aho, who has returned from a decade at war where he killed “so much he gets life and death mixed up.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal