fisticuffs

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English

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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fisticuffs pl (plural only)

  1. plural of fisticuff
  2. (plural only, informal) An impromptu fight with the fists, usually between only two people.
    • 1686, Nathaniel Johnston, “III: That the People are not the Original of Authority and Government”, in The Excellency of Monarchical Government, Eſpecially of the Engliſh Monarchy [] , London: T. B. for Robert Clavel, page 19:
      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: []
    • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Virginibus Puerisque”, in Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers:
      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.

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See also

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