measure swords with someone

measure swords with someone (third-person singular simple present measures swords with someone, present participle measuring swords with someone, simple past and past participle measured swords with someone)

1. To test someone's skill in swordplay
2. (figurative, idiomatic) To match one's abilities against an antagonist's.

   Synonym: go up against

• “measure”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.