gladiator
Syllables: gla·di·a·tor/ˈɡlædiˌeɪtɚ//ˈɡlædiˌeɪ̯tə/
gladiator noun: a person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild animal.
Noun
gladiator (plural gladiators)
- A person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild animal.
- My mother prepared herself for the evening with the same somber deliberateness of the gladiators in Spartacus.2002, Dirk Wittenborn, Fierce People
- And it's because something of the mundanely manual still adheres to darts that the players' heroic walk of honour from the green room to the oche is so incongruous. The fanfare begins, the strobes go wild, the crowds roar, hostesses wearing the sort of tinsel dresses that drove me crazy when I was...2017, Howard Jacobson, “The Wages of Indulgence is Darts”, in The Dog’s Last Walk (and Other Pieces), London; New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN
- A disputant in a public controversy or debate.
- A professional boxer.
- Synonym of heelwalker (“Any of the order Mantophasmatodea of carnivorous, wingless insects that superficially resemble a cross between praying mantises and phasmids.”).
- Synonyms:
- heelwalker
Verb
gladiator (third-person singular simple present gladiators, present participle gladiatoring, simple past and past participle gladiatored)
- To fight as entertainment for others.
- When the dance was done there was the cock-fight, or rather a century of cock-fights, to be reckoned with. For two hundred of these luckless creatures 'gladiatored' bravely, while an appreciative audience held matting up to its chin to keep from being bespattered with blood.1915, The Atlantic Monthly - Volume 116, page 642
- The guards made me fight other prisoners for their own amusement. It was called gladiatoring.2013 December 4, “What it's like to spend 20 years on death row”, in The Telegraph
- To compete in a public contest.
- I played very well as was evidenced in that I was the only participant in the entire six or seven days of wind gladiatoring who received a standing ovation from the orchestra, no less.1994, Saxophone Journal - Volume 19, page 32
- It's himself gladiatoring on the harmonium.2019, Ruth Park, A Fence Around the Cuckoo: Text Classics, page 256
- To debate or argue.
- He did his gladiatoring doubtless without malice, and from a purely sporting instinct — even as Mr. Punch gave the provocation.1895, Athol Mayhew, A Jorum of "Punch" with Those who Helped to Brew it
- Quoting the accounts in both Time and Newsweek, they note that though the "defense attorney may have outwitted, outsparred, and even "out gladiatored" (another popular image in the trial coverage) his opponent, but he still lost the case.1988, Bernard S. Jackson, Law, fact and narrative coherence, page 71
- To act aggressively toward others.
- Why, thin, Mister Levi Slam, don't you think now that a volley poured into them haythen mosquitos beyant would put a stop to their gladiatoring a little?1863, The Boy's Yearly Book, page 212
- It's the Count von Eisenstein," says he, "that's come over to Eire for protection against the murdering English who are marauding and gladiatoring about Germany and would kill him if they could, but thanks be to God," says my bold McQuirk, "he'll be safe enough here and it'll be a good thing to...1946, George A. Birmingham, The Piccadilly Lady, page 70
gladiator meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
gladiator in Hindi
- (in ancient Rome) a person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild animal
- ग्लैडीएटर glaiḍīeṭar
gladiator in Tamil
- கிளாடியேட்டர், கிளாடியேடர், கிளேடியேட்டர்
gladiator in Marathi
- ग्लॅडिएटर, ग्लेडिएटर, ग्लॅडीएटर
gladiator in Urdu
- (in ancient Rome) a person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild animal
- گِلَیڈی ایٹَر gilaiḍī eṭar
More languagesFewer languages
- gladiator in Bengali
- গ্ল্যাডিয়েটর, গ্ল্যাডিয়েটার, গ্লাডিয়েটর
- gladiator in Telugu
- గ్లాడియేటర్, గ్లేడియేటర్, గ్లాడియాటరింగ్
- gladiator in Malayalam
- ഗ്ലാഡിയേറ്റർ, ഗ്ലാഡിയറ്റർ, ഗ്ലാഡിയേറ്ററിംഗ്
- gladiator in Kannada
- ಗ್ಲಾಡಿಯೇಟರ್, ಗ್ಲ್ಯಾಡಿಯೇಟರ್, ಗ್ಲೇಡಿಯೇಟರ್
- gladiator in Punjabi
- ਗਲੇਡੀਏਟਰ, ਗਲੈਡੀਏਟਰ
- gladiator in Gujarati
- ગ્લેડીયેટર, ગ્લેડિએટર, ગ્લેડીએટર
- gladiator in Odia
- ଗ୍ଲେଡିଏଟର, ଗ୍ଲାଡିଏଟର, ଗ୍ଲେଡିଆଟର
- gladiator in Nepali
- ग्लेडिएटर, ग्ल्याडिएटर, ग्लाडिएटर
- gladiator in Tagalog
- gladyador
- gladiator in Arabic
- مُجَالِد mujālid, مُصَارِع muṣāriʕ
- gladiator in Malay
- gladiator
- gladiator in Indonesian
- gladiator
- gladiator in Thai
- กลาดิอาตอร์ glaa-dì-aa-dtə̂ə
- gladiator in Vietnamese
- võ sĩ giác đấu, đấu sĩ La Mã
- gladiator in Myanmar
- ဂလေဒီယေတာ ga.lediyeta
Examples of gladiator in a sentence
- It was all part of the gladiatoring: the true performer would argue each case to the utmost, like a debater or mooter in our own world.2005, John K. Hale, Milton's Cambridge Latin: Performing in the Genres, 1625-1632:
- Och! lave off your gladiatoring; sure it's took up I'd be if I did that!2010, John O'Mahony, R. L. Praeger, The Sunny Side of Ireland, page 71:
- Have I been gladiatoring about the place, boys?1981, Ruth Park, The Frost And The Fire, page 162:
Synonyms of gladiator
Forms of gladiator
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | gladiators |
| alternative form (obsolete) | gladiatour |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | gladiators |
| present participle | gladiatoring |
| past participle | gladiatored |
| past | gladiatored |
Origin of gladiator
From Latin gladiātor, from gladius (“sword”). See also English gladius.
Words formed from gladiator
Questions about gladiator
- What does gladiator mean?
- Gladiator means a person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild animal.
- What is gladiator in Hindi?
- Gladiator in Hindi is ग्लैडीएटर (glaiḍīeṭar). See Gladiator meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use gladiator in a sentence?
- It was all part of the gladiatoring: the true performer would argue each case to the utmost, like a debater or mooter in our own world.
- What part of speech is gladiator?
- Gladiator can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce gladiator?
- Gladiator is pronounced /ˈɡlædiˌeɪ̯tə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of gladiator?
- The plural of gladiator is gladiators.
Words near gladiator in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gladiator (page history and authors); gladiator (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gladiator (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gladiator (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gladiator (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gladiator (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gladiator (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gladiator (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gladiator (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gladiator (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gladiator (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gladiator.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-gladiator.wav.
Cite this entry: “gladiator.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gladiator. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.