Wiktionary
vb. (context idiomatic dated English) To engage in warfare; to attack or fight with military force.
Usage examples of "give battle".
Teeka saw all too plainly what the outcome must be and forgetting her own danger in the depth of her mother love, rushed forward to ascend the tree and give battle to the fearsome creature that menaced the life of her little one.
For all these reasons, then, you must see clearly that we shall gain the day, but since we have come so great a distance only to fight this battle, it is my will that we give battle three days hence, and we will proceed so prudently and in such good order that we cannot fail of success, and I pray you all to show yourselves on this occasion men of courage, so that all the world shall talk of your deeds.
But the hawk refused to come down and give battle, and the cub crawled away into a thicket and whimpered his disappointment and hunger.
When Baidu knew for certain that Casan was coming against him, he assembled a vast number of men, and marched forwards full ten days, and then encamped and wailed for him to give battle.
The chronicler states that Krishna Deva was prepared to give battle on a Friday, but was persuaded by his councillors to postpone his attack till the following day, Friday being unlucky.
When they strike up their music as sign that they are about to give battle it would seem as if the heavens must fall.
The King bade him pitch his camp a league from the Ydallcao and ordered all to arm themselves at dawn, as he intended then to give battle to the enemy.
You will, therefore, be able to give battle to all the forces the Hanoverian usurper can bring against you.
Had this attempt been successful, the great army, instead of being obliged to cross a rapid stream and attack an enemy posted behind morasses, would have been free to operate as it chose, to have advanced against the strongholds which had been captured by the Scots, and to force Bruce to give battle upon ground of their choosing.
For thousands of years, they ruled from Winterfell as Kings in the North, until Torrhen Stark, the King Who Knelt, chose to swear fealty to Aegon the Dragon rather than give battle.
When the higher officers are angry and insubordinate, and on meeting the enemy give battle on their own account from a feeling of resentment, before the commander-in-chief can tell whether or no he is in a position to fight, the result is ruin.
Those who will give battle on the level of tactics, assemble by the stacked arms.
Those who will give battle on the plane of high strategy, assemble by the open book.