fisticuffs

WOTD – 48 September 2008    

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /ˈfɪs.tɪ.kʌfs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

fisticuffs

1. Plural form of fisticuff
2. (plural only, informal) An impromptu fight with the fists, usually between only two people.
   • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers, "Virginibus Puerisque,"

     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.

   • 1890, Edmondo de Amicis translated by Caroline Tilton, Holland and Its People, Chapter XII

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

3. (plural only, sports, dated) Bare-knuckled boxing, a form of boxing done without boxing gloves or similar padding.
   • 1870, Charles Dicken, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Chapter XVII

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

Synonyms

• (informal: fight): brawl, fight, fist-fight, punch-up
• (bare-knuckled boxing): prizefighting

Related terms

• fist
• fisticuff
• fisticuffer

Translations

informal: a fight with the fists

• Bulgarian: юмручен бой (bg) m (jumručen boj)
• Dutch: knokpartij (nl) m and f
• Finnish: käsirysy (fi)

• French: rififi m (European slang)
• Hungarian: bunyó (hu)
• Russian: кулачный (ru) (kulačnyj) бой (ru) m (boj), мордобой (ru) m (mordoboj)

bare-knuckled boxing

• Bulgarian: бокс без ръкавици (bg) (boks bez rǎkavici)

• French: pugilat m (mostly Ancient Greek Boxing)

See also

• boxing
• fighting