donnybrook
noun
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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.
Examples of donnybrook in a Sentence
Brian Steinberg, Variety, 24 Mar. 2026
Paramedics were called after several players in the scrum were bloodied in the donnybrook.
—Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 23 Feb. 2026
Of course, that’s exactly what Governor Maura Healey and Mayor Michelle Wu and the developer want; A knockdown, drag out, talk radio donnybrook over a shelter being shoehorned into a tiny former nursing home nestled among a family neighborhood in the Holy Name parish.
—Lou Murray, Boston Herald, 29 Oct. 2025
In short, this super-sized donnybrook does not seem likely to quiet down anytime soon.
—Alexei Oreskovic, Fortune, 7 July 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Donnybrook.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/donnybrook. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationGeographical Definition
Donnybrook
geographical name
Note: Donnybrook is a southeastern suburb of Dublin.
