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/ˈfɹiːfəɹɔːl/ · noun
(idiomatic) Chaos; a chaotic situation lacking rules or control..
When the fire alarm went off, it was a free-for-all.
Competition was the order of the day: the industrial warfare of the sixties was a free-for-all.
[…] this was a consequence of building Tubes by means of a competitive free-for-all. Each company wanted to expand its territory at the expense of the others.
Men, as well as women, were springing in to the rope and pulling. No longer was it team against team, but all Oakland against all San Francisco, festooned with a free-for-all fight.
Then Lucy told him about the great passion of her father—about the long, time-honored custom of free-for-all races, and the great races that had been run in the past; […]
But, he added, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences!”
Use free-for-all when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Free-for-all means (idiomatic) Chaos; a chaotic situation lacking rules or control..
Common synonyms include FFA, brawl.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
When the fire alarm went off, it was a free-for-all.
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