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My brother recently stated that a pet hate of his is was the use of the term "cynical challenge" to describe a football tackle.

Can a nasty challenge be worded as a "cynical challenge"?

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Challenge and tackle in your examples are nouns, not verbs. And cynical has a particular meaning which may be exactly what's required. – Andrew Leach Dec 4 '12 at 11:30
@AndrewLeach sorry, I have corrected my question so it consistently says challenge. So grammtically it is correct to say "cyncial challenge"? I shall reword my question again as that is more what it is about – My Head Hurts Dec 4 '12 at 11:32
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Grammatically, it's fine: the adjective describes the noun. Whether a challenge/tackle is accurately described as cynical might be another matter. – Andrew Leach Dec 4 '12 at 11:33
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oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/… -- a cynical tackle would be one which deliberately damaged the opponent's interests, for example by preventing a goal because that is a bigger setback for the tackler than being sent off. There are probably other scenarios, too. – Andrew Leach Dec 4 '12 at 11:41
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@Matt My experience is that many commentators use "challenge" to mean "tackle" rather than a protest about the tackle. – Andrew Leach Dec 4 '12 at 11:44
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closed as general reference by Andrew Leach, Matt Эллен, tchrist, JSBձոգչ, Daniel δ Dec 5 '12 at 17:06

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3 Answers

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In football (i.e. real football, not the gridiron stuff) a "cynical tackle" would be a tackle on another player that deliberately risks breaking the rules, or maybe even does break the rules, but the player judges that the downside of the violation (maybe a free kick or a yellow card) is outweighed by the benefit of getting the ball of the opposition. A "cynical challenge" is another way of saying the same thing. For example a very physical challenge on an attacking player just outside the penalty area, so that if the defender commits a foul they only give away a free kick and not a penalty.

It's one step less bad than the "professional foul" which is a blatant and deliberate foul on another player, for example to stop them scoring a goal. A professional foul almost always gets a red card from the ref ("taking one for the team") and ofen leads to a penalty — but that might be judged worth it if you were, for example, one goal up in the last minutes of a cup final.

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The term 'cynical' can for sure be used for a noun. In this context, it is used for describing a rather hurtful tackle in football, i.e., more inclined towards negative of sportsmanship. In that sense, the word might go well with the usage here. However, usages in English have been so varied that it's almost impossible to know the correct or incorrect usage. To point the least, many novelists invariably use pretty unconventional adjectives in writings.

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I believe that your original confusion over whether "tackle" is being used as a noun or a verb lies at the heart of this question.

No, a tackle (n) cannot be cynical. But a person may tackle (v) with a cynical disregard for the spirit of the game.

To be grammatically correct, the sentence should refer to the act (of tackling or challenging) made cynically. Since it is a verb that is being modified, then the modifier ought to be an adverb.

So why are "cynical challenges" made so frequently, because the commentators have as little regard for the niceties of grammar as the players concerned do for those of football.

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Of course a tackle can be cynical. See the ODO definition which uses "cynical manipulation" as an example. That is, the manipulation not the manipulator is described thus. – Andrew Leach Dec 4 '12 at 14:16
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I'm off for a quiet pint. I just thought I'd throw in another transferred epithet first. And ask whether a toilet can be disabled and yet fully operational. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 4 '12 at 20:10

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