Rivalry (redirected from rival)

Rivalry

Robbery (See THIEVERY.)

Rudeness (See COARSENESS.)

Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane

bully and show-off compete for Katrina’s hand. [Am. Lit.: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]

Capulets and Montagues

bitter feud between these two houses leads to tragedy. [Br. Lit.: Romeo and Juliet]

Diomedes and Troilus

rivals for hand of Cressida. [Br. Lit.: Troilus and Cressida]

Esau and Jacob

struggled even in mother’s womb. [O.T.: Genesis 25:22]

Eteocles and Polynices

brothers battle for Theban throne. [Gk. Lit.: Seven Against Thebes]

Gingham Dog and Calico Ca

t stuffed animals eat each other up. [Am. Lit.: “The Duel” in Hollowell]

Guelphs and Ghibellines

perennial medieval Italian feuding political factions. [Ital. Hist.: Plumb, 42–43]

Hatfields and McCoys

19th-century mountain families carried on endless feud in southern U.S. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 942]

Jets and Sharks

teenage gangs fight for supremacy amid the New York tenements. [Am. Lit. and Cinema: West Side Story]

Kilkenny cats

contentious felines fight to the death. [Nurs. Rhyme: Mother Goose]

Percys and Douglases

the perennial Scottish border feud; recounted in famous ballad “Chevy Chase.” [Scot. Hist.: Payton, 141]

Proitus and Acrisius

fought in womb; contended for father’s realm. [Gk. Myth.: Gaster, 164]

Richard the Lion-Hearted and Saladin

Christian and Saracen leaders part friends after Crusade. [Br. Lit.: The Talisman]

Sohrab and Rustum

champions of the Tartars and Persians, respectively, engage in mortal combat, unaware that one is the other’s son. [Br. Poetry: Arnold Sohrab and Rustum in Magill III, 1002]