Definition of "state of war" [state of war]

• A legal state created by a declaration of war and ended by official declaration during which the international rules of war apply (noun)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• ""We are not actually in a state of war with the Gershmi," said a captain general."
• "Omphis was eager to be accommodating as he was in a permanent state of war with the neighboring kingdoms, including a powerful state to his south beyond the Hydaspes River ruled by Porus, king of an Indian people known as the Paurava."
• "The British ministers find in a state of war rather than of peace, by riding the various contractors, and receiving douceurs on the vast expenditures of the war supplies, that they recruit their broken fortunes, or make new ones, and therefore will not make peace as long as by any delusions they can keep the temper of the nation up to the war point."