Brawl

/bɹɔːl/ · noun

Meaning

A disorderly argument or fight, usually with a large number of people involved..

Definitions by Sense

1. A disorderly argument or fight, usually with a large number of people involved.
2. (intransitive) To engage in a brawl; to fight or quarrel.
3. (intransitive) To create a disturbance; to complain loudly.
4. (intransitive) Especially of a rapid stream running over stones: to make a loud, confused noise.
5. (transitive) To pour abuse on; to scold.
6. (intransitive, obsolete) To move to and fro, to quiver, to shake.
7. (dance, obsolete) A type of dance move or step.
8. (dance, music, historical) Alternative form of branle (“dance of French origin dating from the 16th century, performed by couples in a circle or a line; the music for this dance”).

Example Sentences

Three Ciuell brawles bred of an airie word, / By the old Capulet and Mountague, / Haue thrice diſturbd the quiet of our ſtreets.

The complaint charged that the defendants, on, etc., at, etc., "in a certain public place, to wit, in a certain school-house in which a singing-school was then and there being held, did make a great brawl and tumult, and stamped their feet on the floor, hissed, used loud and saucy language, and were guilty of rude, indecent, and disorderly conduct."

It has been reported that an entertainment took place not long ago in a certain "hot spot" in New York City, and it has been charged that members of the Federal Communications Commission were present; that they got into a drunken brawl; and in the brawl some woman was hurt, her arm twisted.

Robert Carlyle appears as Begbie, who starts brawls with almost anyone who crosses his path; [...]

I doe the wrong, and firſt began to braule / The ſecret miſchiefes that I ſet abroach, / I lay vnto the grieuous charge of others: [...]

Theſe are the deep and profound Myſteries of Artificial Logick, invented with ſo much care by theſe fallacious Doctors, [...] Theſe are the Nets, and theſe are the Hounds with which they hunt the Truth of all things, whether natural, as in Phyſicks; or ſupernatural, as in Metaphyſicks: but according to the Proverb of Clodius and Varro, can never overtake, by reaſon of their bawling and brawling one with another.

As long as they [Xanthippe and Myrto, Socrates' wives] diſagreed, they were continually ſcolding, brawling, or fighting, with each other; and whenever they agreed, they both joined in brawling [verb sense 2] at him, and often fell on him with their fiſts as well as with their tongues, and beat him ſoundly.

[U]pon every trifle, the vitiated faculties of thy ſoul are inflamed with immoderate and moſt irregular paſſion, ſo that thou often brawleſt, and art made thereby to roar like a wild bull caught in a thicket: [...]

Synonyms for brawl

Antonyms for brawl

Related Words

Word Forms

• brawls
• brawling
• brawled

Usage Notes

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