Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Combat \Com"bat\, n. [Cf. F. combat.]
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A fight; a contest of violence; a struggle for supremacy.
My courage try by combat, if thou dar'st.
--Shak.The noble combat that 'twixt joy and sorrow was fought in Paulina.
--Shak. -
(Mil.) An engagement of no great magnitude; or one in which the parties engaged are not armies.
Single combat, one in which a single combatant meets a single opponent, as in the case of David and Goliath; also, a duel.
Syn: A battle; engagement; conflict; contest; contention; struggle; fight, strife. See Battle, Contest.
Wiktionary
n. (context historical English) A duel between single representitives of opposing armies, with the outcome accepted as the battle's outcome.
Wikipedia
Single combat is a duel between two single warriors which takes place in the context of a battle between two armies. Often, it is champion warfare, with the two considered the champions of their respective sides. Instances of single combat are known from Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The champions were often combatants who represented larger, spectator groups. Such representative contests and stories thereof are known worldwide.
Typically, it takes place in the no-man's-land between the opposing armies, with other warriors watching and themselves refraining from fighting until one of the two single combatants has won.
But single combat could also take place within a larger battle. Both ancient and medieval warfare did not always rely on the line or phalanx formation. The Iliad notably describes the battles of the Trojan war as a series of single encounters on the field, and the medieval code of chivalry, partly inspired by this, encouraged the single combat between individual knights on the battlefield, in which the loser was not usually killed but taken captive for ransom. This tradition ended in the 14th century due to the use of the longbow and the pike square against mounted knights ( Battle of Crécy, Battle of Laupen), and the tradition of single combat was continued away from the battlefield, with the pas d'armes and the early modern duel.
Usage examples of "single combat".
Now she was looking down into a kind of grave-sized windowless pit, containing a helmet on a cord, a single combat chair.
Now she was standing on the single combat chair, and now she had let herself down into it.
The ill-favored blood of his enemies anointed his head and he searched for honorable single combat.
An action of the perennial conflict in Brittany, it began with a challenge to single combat issued by Robert de Beaumanoir, a noble Breton on the French side, to his opponent Bramborough of the Anglo-Breton party.
Killed not by their equals in single combat but by strange secret words spoken by machines made with the High Craft, hidden deep within the earth - like this Columbus, the cloud-warrior had talked of.
He knew, beyond any doubt, that within minutes he would again be engaged in single combat.
A nation who believed that public quarrels could be determined by a single combat might very well think that it was proper also for deciding the disputes of individuals.
I am not even sure I would take odds against an exceptional Human fighter in single combat against a Molitar.
Then, of course, came single combat between Prince Alexander and the German chieftain.
Their commander vanquished in single combat, the German ranks came apart, and when they tried to rally on the edge of the lake, the ice gave way, drowning nearly everyone.