Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A fistfight.
- n. The activity of fighting with the fists.
Wiktionary
- n. Plural form of fisticuff.
- n. plurale tantum, informal An impromptu fight with the fists, usually between only two people.
- n. plurale tantum, sports, dated Bare-knuckled boxing, a form of boxing done without boxing gloves or similar padding.
WordNet 3.0
- n. fighting with the fists
- n. a fight with bare fists
Etymologies
- From fisty cuffs : fisty, with the fists (from fist) + cuff2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Though Holmes was known to engage in fisticuffs from time to time, it is still odd and jarring that those occasional episodes, at least in the trailers I have seen, have been made the focus of the film.”
“Therefore, I'm positive that if we ever engaged in fisticuffs, I would beat that fucking dwarf like a rented mule.”
“Jack is all: talk to the hand, and they're driven to very bloody fisticuffs, which is only broken up by Juliet, who announces that she has changed her mind, as is a woman's prerogative: She thinks Jack is right.”
“` ` We like Ricky's competitive spirit for sure, but we definitely don't need him getting into any kind of fisticuffs, '' Nolan said.”
“There is plenty of time down the line to have the kind of fisticuffs that sometimes come with these debates, as the date of the elections comes closer.”
“We try, as far as possible, to stick to the topic; we don't slag each other off anyone who attempts 'fisticuffs' on this blog will have Solti the ginger cat to deal with, which I don't recommend!”
“The rhetorical trick of belittling the matter by speaking of it as "fisticuffs" will not pass in this discussion.”
“As the MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE said of the imbroglio (while earning bonus points for use of the term "fisticuffs"):”
“She actually knows how to use "fisticuffs" in a sentence without sounding smug.”
“Just as good, clean fisticuffs add life and excitement to hockey games, so too do verbal dust-ups season the literary scene.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fisticuffs’.
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Handy Words
List of words and phrases referring to the hand, hands, fist, or derivatives of the Latin manus, beginning with left-handed.
left-handed, double-fisted, fisticuffs, handy, right-handed, two-handed, manual, manumission, manuscript, manually, manustupration, manudiction and 164 more...
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fight
words for fighting
( open list, randomness )bout, fight, match, smackdown, blue, stoush, battle, clash, fuss, fray, ruckus, tussle and 115 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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Them's fightin' words
brannigan, fisticuffs, donnybrook, lambaste, fracas, fray, imbroglio, melee, squabble, quarrel, skirmish, stramash and 28 more...
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Fist
A list of words containing the string *fist*.
fistulotomy, fistuliform, fistulatome, fistula-needle, fistulary, fistular, fisticuffing, fist-law, close-fistedness, hamfistedly, fistfighting, tightfistedness and 29 more...
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Words That Are Fun to Say.
error, acetylsalicylic acid, hemidemisemiquaver, misanthropic, cantankerous, thou, prolixity, wherefore, lozenge, fisticuffs, comparatively, strumpet and 2 more...
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TEN DOLLAR WORDS
brouhaha, foofaraw, ruckus, slumgullion, snollygoster, slangwhanger, slugabed, hodgepodge, rapscallion, muckamuck, hornswoggle, sockdolager and 5 more...
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Dead (or dying) English Words
Inspired by the an old New York Times article and the Dictionary of Dying Danish Words list here on Wordie.
chorine, terpsichore, motorcar, motoring, centigrade, maven, tautology, pleonasm, contrariwise, spatchcock, mascaron, miasma and 29 more...
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Pluralia Tantum
Nouns that are common in plural form but are non-existent or rarely used in singular form.
scissors, thanks, clothes, remains, tights, trousers, pants, news, billiards, means, mathematics, physics and 221 more...
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cxfx's list
callipygous, scaphism, ubermorgen, handschuhschneeba..., farctate, autohagiography, autolatry, spindrift, feculent, verisimilitude, brobdingnagian, ineluctable and 205 more...
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Favorites
ostensibly, surreptitiously, seriously, apparently, vociferous, guitar, asphalt, glee, glitter, fascinating, asynchronous, cunt and 128 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, F
felony, frolic, fend, fuselage, farthingale, freewheeling, frigorific, flummery, fancypants, felsitic, flagstone, flageolet and 295 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 1: Less Common
These are words that I have learnt over the years and want to remember
epithalamium, hustings, verger, atheling, moue, pendulous, pendragon, funicular, pericope, fettle, eleemosynary, moot and 160 more...
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Chained Bear's Favorite Words
peruvian, sparky, poop, etymological, fuck, whatnot, pulchritude, nosh, tetched, quotidian, squalid, trajectory and 388 more...
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Words
Words I like.
jejune, eunoia, swallow, spelunk, milquetoast, echolalia, trumble, toothsome, synecdoche, taciturn, kerfuffle, aleatoric and 98 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fisticuffs.
yarb Opinions are nearly balanced; the disputants are nearly in a passion; as argument weakens, invective grows stronger; they get from bad to worse; over goes the table, and up jump they to fisty-cuffs.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 8 ch. 9 Oct 7, 2008