The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - encounter v.

1) meet, come upon, run into or across, happen upon, chance upon, hit upon, light upon, stumble upon, Colloq bump into: She encountered him again in the supermarket. 2) face, experience, meet with, contend with, be faced with, come into contact with, wrestle with: She encounters such problems every day. 3) come into conflict with, contend with, assail, cross swords (with) , grapple with, engage, joust with, do battle with, confront, clash with, join, meet: The ballad tells how he encountered the black knight in single combat. --n. 4) meeting: It was a chance encounter that brought us together. 5) confrontation, brush, quarrel, disagreement, dispute, altercation, engagement, action, battle, fight, clash, conflict, skirmish, contest, competition, duel, contention, struggle, war, Colloq dust-up, scrap, run-in, set-to: My uncle took part in the bloody encounter in the Ardennes.