Fisticuffs

Definitions

1. An impromptu fight with the fists, usually between only two people.
   informal, plural, plural-only
2. Bare-knuckled boxing, a form of boxing done without boxing gloves or similar padding.
   dated, plural, plural-only

Equivalents

Examples

“So he obſerves that all ſimple Governments are apt to ſome evil that is peculiar and conſequential to their Nature, as he inſtanceth in a Kingdom changed into Monarchy abſolute, by which he means that which we now call⟳ Tyranny; Ariſtocracy into Oligarchy, and Democracy into Beſtial Chirocracy, when the Seditious of people prevail more by Fiſticuffs than reaſon: […]”

“People who share⟳ a cell in the Basti[l]le […] if they do not immediately fall⟳ to fisticuffs, will find⟳ some possible ground of compromise.”

“[…], his head all scarred with the sticks and fisticuffs which he had got in the taverns at Utrecht, […]”

“In his college days of athletic exercises, Mr. Crisparkle had known professors of the Noble Art of fisticuffs, […]”

CEFR level