fistfight

noun

fist·​fight ˈfist-ˌfīt 

: a usually spontaneous fight with bare fists

Example Sentences

A fistfight broke out in the stands.

He often gets into fistfights.

Recent Examples on the Web

According to police, two 16-year-old students went into a classroom to confront the 15-year-old suspect, and the three students soon began engaging in a fistfight. —Annie Vainshtein, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 Mar. 2023

After a Missouri school board approved a masking mandate, a fistfight broke out. —Alisa Bowman, Discover Magazine, 3 Mar. 2023

Flo recently chatted with Vulture about the new record, growing up in the church, defying expectations, and memories of her last fistfight — which catapulted her into a sprawling story of a young Flo beating the brakes off a high-school nemesis. —Vulture, 4 Aug. 2022

The scene devolves into a fistfight, with Torres and Sawyer ending up flat on the ground, battered but thrilled to be alive. —Sara Netzley, EW.com, 24 Jan. 2023

As Scherzer reached the dugout, a fistfight nearly broke out in the first deck above the third-base line — between Mets fans. —Bryce Millercolumnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Oct. 2022

There’s something that the strategy and development team at AppFolio should know about their boss: His New Year’s resolution is to get into a fistfight. —Callum Borchers, WSJ, 29 Dec. 2022

Mall video surveillance showed the altercation between the two groups — estimated as five to nine people — erupt into a fistfight before one person pulled out a gun and opened fire, the chief said. —Abbie Parr And Stefanie Dazio, Chicago Tribune, 24 Dec. 2022

Mall video surveillance showed the altercation between the two groups — estimated as five to nine people — erupt into a fistfight before one person pulled out a gun and opened fire, the chief said. —Stefanie Dazio, Fortune, 24 Dec. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1603, in the meaning defined above