donnybrook was our Word of the Day on 12/28/2012. Hear the podcast!
Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
Examples of donnybrook in a Sentence
A donnybrook has erupted over the court's decision.
a dozen people were arrested after the donnybrook at the stadium
Recent Examples of donnybrook from the Web
-
That’s what one woman did during a Sunday donnybrook at Fort Myers’ Edison Mall captured on video by David Milburn.
-
Here are a few mental snapshots: ‣ A man, naked to the waist, with a gash on his shoulder and blood running down his face, broke free from the donnybrook down front and ran up the aisle.
-
Sacramento County District Attorney’s officials this week announced four arrests more than a year after the donnybrook between neo-Nazis and anti-fascist, or Antifa, demonstrators that left 10 people hurt, including at least five who were stabbed.
-
While everyone is grabbing the popcorn for the Blac Chyna-Rob Kardashian beef, the real donnybrook was happening Monday on TV One’s News One Now, when host Roland Martin had ankh-right leader Umar Abdullah-Johnson on his morning show.
-
The benches-clearing incident might be the only thing keeping alive graying terms like ruckus, donnybrook, rumble, battle royal and rhubarb.
-
This triggered the biggest Major League Baseball melee since a 2010 donnybrook between the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals.
-
Adding insult to injury has been a donnybrook over the Western Wall.
-
But those expecting a donnybrook will likely be disappointed, church experts say.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'donnybrook.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
The Donnybrook Fair was an annual event held in Donnybrook-then a suburb of Dublin, Ireland-from the 13th to the 19th centuries. The fair was legendary for the vast quantities of liquor consumed there, for the number of hasty marriages performed during the week following it, and, most of all, for the frequent brawls that erupted throughout it. Eventually, the fair's reputation for tumult was its undoing. From the 1790s on there were campaigns against the drunken brawl the fair had become. The event was abolished in 1855, but not before its name had become a generic term for a free-for-all.
Origin and Etymology of donnybrook
donnybrook Synonyms
Synonyms
affray [chiefly British], broil, brawl, fracas, fray, free-for-all, melee (also mêlée), rough-and-tumble, row, ruckus, ructionRelated Words
battle, clash, combat, conflict, contest, fisticuffs, handgrips, hassle, scrap, scrimmage, scuffle, skirmish, struggle, tussle; horseplay, roughhousing; altercation, argument, dispute, kickup, quarrel, spat, squabble, tiff, wrangleDONNYBROOK Defined for English Language Learners
Learn More about donnybrook
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up donnybrook? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).













