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View synonyms for sparring partner

sparring partner

[ spahr-ing pahrt-ner ]

noun

  1. a boxer who spars with and otherwise serves to train a boxer who is preparing for a bout.
  2. a person who serves to sharpen and expand one’s thinking through frequent friendly debate:

    This provocative political writer was the frequent sparring partner of a popular talk show host on TV.



sparring partner

/ ˈspɑːrɪŋ /

noun

  1. a person who practises with a boxer during training
  2. a person with whom one has friendly arguments
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of sparring partner1

First recorded in 1905–10
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Idioms and Phrases

An individual with whom one enjoys arguing, as in Jim's my best sparring partner . This expression alludes to boxing, where since about 1900 it has denoted the person one practices or trains with. [Mid-1900s] Also see spar with .
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Example Sentences

At the very least, he would make a thoughtful and high-minded sparring partner for Clinton in the debates that lie ahead.

Johansson needed a sparring partner, and a young, brash man, just a year out of the amateurs, volunteered.

SMUG is willing to fight it out and has a willing sparring partner in Lively, who has been sued five times by gay activists.

She was with her on most of the major swims of the 1970s, is a friend, adviser, and sparring partner.

He had had no sparring partner, and his food had not been of the best nor always sufficient.

Bit thick, I mean to say, a sparring-partner going at him like that.

Then he was a sparring partner, I think they call it, for a prizefighter.

He's been sparring partner of one of the champions and he thinks a good deal of himself.

It was the fact that Bugs Butler was lowering himself to extend his powers against a sparring-partner that shocked Mr. Burrowes.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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