no contest
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Calque of Latin nolō contendere (“I don't want to contest”).
Noun
[edit]- (US, law) A plea in a criminal case which means that the defendant admits no guilt but is no longer contesting the charges brought against him/her.
- Synonym: nolo contendere
- (US, law) A clause in a will that imposes a penalty of forfeiture against any beneficiary who challenges the will.
- 2021, Susan F. French, A California Companion for the Course in Wills, Trusts, and Estates:
- No contest clauses are valid in California and are favored by the public policies of discouraging litigation and giving effect to the settlor's expressed purposes.
- (boxing, historical) The result of a boxing bout, promoted as an exhibition when the sport of boxing was illegal, when a knockout did not occur.
- (boxing) A bout that the referee cancels early, either due to a serious injury early in the fight or due to a lack of action
- An election in which the candidate runs unopposed.
Interjection
[edit](The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
- Used to indicate that a competition or comparison is one-sided and so its outcome is too obvious to be interesting.
- Synonym: no comparison
- (emphatic) Expresses lack of doubt (i.e., certainty) in a choice between options or preferences.
- I'll take a Porsche, no contest!
Phrase
[edit]- Indicates the perceived lack of any real competition because the “winner” or superior choice is obvious.
- 2000 November 5, Peter M. Nichols, “HOLIDAY FILMS; Studios Move Slowly With DVD Boxed Sets”, in The New York Times[1]:
- To all the things DVD does better than the videocassette, add the boxed set. In looks alone there is no contest.
Usage notes
[edit]Usually in the phrase “there is(/was) no contest”.
Synonyms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “no contest” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
- “no contest”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “no contest”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “no contest” (US) / “no contest” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
Categories:
- English terms calqued from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English multiword terms
- American English
- en:Law
- English terms with quotations
- en:Boxing
- English terms with historical senses
- English interjections
- English informal terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English phrases