riva

a. Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority; as, rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions. [ 1913 Webster ]

The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Rivaled r Rivalled; p. pr. & vb. n. Rivaling or Rivalling. ] 1. To stand in competition with; to strive to gain some object in opposition to; as, to rival one in love. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To strive to equal or exel; to emulate. [ 1913 Webster ]

To rival thunder in its rapid course. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To be in rivalry. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. rival (cf. It. rivale), L. rivales two neigbors having the same brook in common, rivals, fr. rivalis belonging to a brook, fr. rivus a brook. Cf. Rivulet, Rete. ] 1. A person having a common right or privilege with another; a partner. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who is in pursuit of the same object as another; one striving to reach or obtain something which another is attempting to obtain, and which one only can posses; a competitor; as, rivals in love; rivals for a crown. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ “Rivals, in the primary sense of the word, are those who dwell on the banks of the same stream. But since, as all experience shows, there is no such fruitful source of coutention as a water right, it would continually happen that these occupants of the opposite banks would be at strife with one another in regard of the periods during which they severally had a right to the use of the stream . . . And thus 'rivals' . . . came to be used of any who were on any grounds in more or less unfriendly competition with one another.” Trench. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Competitor; emulator; antagonist. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female rival. [ Obs. ] Richardson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. rivalitas: cf. F. rivalité. ] 1. Rivalry; competition. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Equality, as of right or rank. [ Obs. ] hak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Rivalries The act of rivaling, or the state of being a rival; a competition. “Keen contention and eager rivalries.” Jeffrey. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Emulation; competition. See Emulation. [ 1913 Webster ]