Sentence:  More than once I was <WSD>confronted</WSD> by professional gamblers , `` bookies '' , loan `` sharks '' , gangsters , `` thugs '' and `` finger men '' - people of a class I did not even know existed - to repay my husband 's staggering losses , `` or else '' . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  oppose, as in hostility or a competition