bare-knuckle

adjective or adverb

bare-knuck·​le ˈber-ˈnə-kəl 

variants or less commonly bare-knuckled

ˈber-ˈnə-kəld 

or bare-knuckles

ˈber-ˈnə-kəlz 

1

: not using boxing gloves

… champion bare-knuckle prizefighter of England …

—Dennis Craig

when men fought bare-knuckle

2

: having a fierce unrelenting character

bare-knuckle politics

Examples of bare-knuckle in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Tates, who hold dual US and UK citizenship, were arrested by the US Marshals Service on July 18 while on their way to a bare-knuckle boxing event in Miami. — Julianna Bragg, CNN Money, 21 July 2026

Hassabis, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2024 for pioneering the use of AI in protein prediction, is based in London and has largely avoided the viper pit created by the bare-knuckle AI race playing out in Silicon Valley. — Reed Albergotti, semafor.com, 15 July 2026

To this day, his 2019 Aladdin movie still ranks as one of the most rip-roaring live action adaptations of a Disney cartoon while his take on Sherlock Holmes was more of a bare-knuckle bruiser than a debonair detective. — Caroline Reid, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026

Kerr, a bare-knuckle boxer and father who was in his 30s, boarded a Jet2 plane from Larnaca in Cyprus on Sunday, June 21, with his girlfriend, the outlets shared. — Adam England, PEOPLE, 25 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1882, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for bare-knuckle

• buckle
• chicle
• chuckle
• knuckle
• muckle
• suckle
• tical
• honeysuckle