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brawl

(brôl)

1. A noisy quarrel or fight.

2. Slang A loud party.

intr.v. brawled, brawl·ing, brawls

To quarrel or fight noisily.

[Middle English braul, from braullen, to quarrel.]

brawler n.

brawling·ly adv.

Synonyms: brawl, donnybrook, fracas, fray¹, free-for-all, melee, scrap², scrape, scuffle¹
These nouns denote a noisy, disorderly, and often violent quarrel or fight: a barroom brawl; a vicious legal donnybrook; a fracas among prison inmates; eager for the fray; a free-for-all in the schoolyard; police plunging into the melee; a scrap between opposing players; a scrape that took place at the mall; a scuffle that broke out in the courtroom.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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