challengers

Noun

challenger (plural challengers)

1. One who challenges.
   • [C]ertainly there is no true orator who is not a hero. […] He is challenger and must answer all comers.1876, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Eloquence”, in Letters and Social Aims, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 103

   Synonyms:

   adversary, contender, disputer, opponent

   Antonyms:

   nonchallenger

   1. One who confronts or opposes; a confronter, an opposer.
      • challengers of traditional attitudes
   2. One who plays against the current champion of a contest or game in hopes of winning and becoming the new champion.
      • The champion hopes to defeat his new challenger in the game to remain undefeated.
   3. (obsolete) One who brings a legal claim; a claimant, a plaintiff; also, one who accuses; an accuser.
      • Novv vvhen they vvere come before Appius, ſitting judicially upon his tribunall ſeate, the plaintife or challenger aforeſaid, declareth againſt her, […]1600, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book III]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 117
2. (also, attributive) Often in the form Challenger: a match, tournament, or tour of the second-highest tier organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals.

See all 7 meanings of challenger