melee
See also: mêlée
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from French mêlée, from Old French meslee, feminine past participle of mesler (“to mix”), derived from Latin misceō (“mix”). Doublet of medley.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈmɛˌleɪ/, /ˈmɛ.li/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈmeɪˌleɪ/, /meɪˈleɪ/, /məˈleɪ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛleɪ, -ɛli
Noun
melee (countable and uncountable, plural melees)
- Hand-to-hand combat; brawling.
- 2019 April 28, Alex McLevy, “Game Of Thrones suffers the fog of war in the battle against the dead (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club[1]:
- Honestly, a lot of what this episode did right had more to do with the scenes that surrounded the enormous melee than those hyper-edited clashes of swords.
- A battle fought at close range, extending even to disorganized crowds of people or traffic jams.
- A noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument or scrap.
- 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC[2]:
- The ball did not appear to cross the line, a view supported by television replays as Blues captain John Terry also joined the melee, but referee Atkinson awarded the goal - to the obvious anger of Spurs and their management team.
- Lively contention or debate, skirmish.
- (military, historical) A cavalry exercise in which two groups of riders try to cut paper plumes off the helmets of their opponents, the contest continuing until no member of one group retains his plume.
- Small cut and polished gemstones sold in lots.
Translations
Hand-to-hand combat
|
battle fought at close range
|
noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument
lively contention or debate
Verb
Lua error in Module:en-headword at line 1112: Legacy parameter 1=es/ies/d no longer supported, just use 'en-verb' without params
- (video games, slang) To physically hit in close quarters, as opposed to shooting, blowing up, or other ranged means of damage. Often refers to the usage of a hand-to-hand weapon.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛleɪ
- Rhymes:English/ɛli
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Military
- English terms with historical senses
- en:Video games
- English slang