What does "encounter" mean?

Additional senses

1. 2.To meet face to face; to have a meeting; to meet, esp. as enemies; to engage in combat; to fight; as, three armies encountered at Waterloo. I will encounter with Andronicus. Shak. Perception and judgment, employed in the investigation of all truth, have in the first place to encounter with particulars. Tatham.
2. 3.A meeting face to face; a running against; a sudden or incidental meeting; an interview. To shun the encounter of the vulgar crowd. Pope.
3. 4.A meeting, with hostile purpose; hence, a combat; a battle; as, a bloody encounter. As one for . . . fierce encounters fit. Spenser. To join their dark encounter in mid-air. Milton . See Contest.