affrays

noun

plural of affray, chiefly British
as in brawls
a rough and often noisy fight usually involving several people the police had to break up an affray that started between fans of the opposing teams

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for affrays
  1. brawls
  2. altercations
  3. clashes
Noun
  • The Rek Humanoid Robot Fighting League is a fighting organization that hosts humanoid robot versus robot brawls in an undersized MMA cage.
    — Jon Martindale, PC Magazine, 5 Oct. 2026
  • These days, oversight hearings have degenerated into partisan brawls.
    — David Wippman, Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of brawls
Noun
  • Images showed altercations between police and protesters, with officers using batons to strike demonstrators, who threw barriers.
    — Joseph Wilson, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2026
  • The election is taking place amid heightened political tensions in Serbia, with reports of incidents and physical altercations at campaign events.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of altercations
Noun
  • The student rallies, now stretching into their third week after violent clashes with police, mass school closures and thousands of arrests, are expected to resume on Thursday.
    — Chloe Taylor, CNBC, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms tried to make President Donald Trump the focus of one of the debate’s sharpest clashes.
    — AJC.com, AJC.com, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of clashes
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

affray
affrays
affright
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Affrays.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/affrays. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
a cup of tea and a golf ball on tee side by side
Quiz: Sounds Like... Choose the word that sounds like it fits the clue...
See All