Emily Dickinson Lexicon

STRIFE, n. [Norm. estrif. See Strive.]

1. Exertion or contention for superiority; contest of emulation, either by intellectual or physical efforts. Strife may be carried on between students or between mechanics. Thus gods contended, noble strife, / Who most should ease the wants of life. – Congreve.
2. Contention in anger or enmity; contest; struggle for victory; quarrel or war. I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon. – Judges xii. These vows thus granted, rais'd a strife above / Betwixt the god of war and queen of love. – Dryden.
3. Opposition; contrariety; contrast. Artificial strife / Lives in these touches livelier than life. – Shak.
4. The agitation produced by different qualities; as, the strife of acid and alkali. [Little used.] – Johnson.