fisticuffsnoun [ plural ]
uk/ˈfɪs.ti.kʌfs/us/ˈfɪs.ti.kʌfs/old-fashioned or humorousfighting in which people hit each other with their fists
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Fighting
- a fight to the finish idiom
- action stations
- bloodless
- bloodletting
- brawl
- counterinsurgency
- disturbance
- dust-up
- engagement
- fighting
- fistfight
- fray
- gunfight
- he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day idiom
- hotspot
- last
- mano a mano
- pick
- shoot
- slug
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Examples from literature
- A dispute arising on this point, the two noble generals came to fisticuffs, and in the fracas our brave commander got his remaining well eye badly damaged.
- It is as though they were on the point of breaking into fisticuffs.
- Let fisticuffs settle it!
- The situation was growing strained, and might well culminate in fisticuffs.
- Tom would have been glad to challenge him to a bout at fisticuffs, for he was confident he could vanquish him in short order.