Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A noisy, disorderly fight or quarrel; a brawl. See Synonyms at brawl.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A disorderly noise or uproar; a brawl or noisy quarrel; a disturbance.
Wiktionary
- n. A noisy disorderly quarrel, fight, brawl, disturbance or scrap.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An uproar; a noisy quarrel; a disturbance; a brawl.
WordNet 3.0
- n. noisy quarrel
Etymologies
- French, from Italian fracasso, from fracassare, to make an uproar.
Examples
“The housing-market uncertainty stemming from the foreclosure fracas is unabated, despite moves by Bank of America Corp. and GMAC to resume some suspended foreclosure sales.”
The Wall Street Journal: Niche Lawyers Spawned Housing Fracas
“Joining the fracas is Owl, who is given a sex-change operation here.”
“Graham, does the dict. happen to contain the word fracas?”
“The recent Alan Blinder fracas is a case in point.”
“Thanks to Dr. Shellie for the pointer. (reminder: The fracas is over the intimidation of prospective MIT hire by a senior faculty member).”
“What seems to have gotten lost in the fracas is that the proposed measure passed by a vote of 243-161 as an amendment to a $19.4 billion foreign aid bill.”
“You may recall the fracas over the cross in the Mojave desert shown here that was up before the U.S.”
USA Today: Court calls a war memorial cross unconstitutional -- again
“Mike Walker says the fracas was the culmination of six months of bickering among the staffers despite attempts he and his business partner made to resolve things.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Office Brawl? Dealing with Feuding Employees
“The immediate cause of the fracas was the appearance of sundry articles, copied from the _New York Times_, referring to the "Lola Montez-like insolence, bare-faced hypocrisy, and effrontery of Queen Christina of Spain.”
“He felt intensely the stupidity of the whole affair, but thought he could not avoid the fight without degradation; while to Shields such a fracas was a delight.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fracas’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 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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fight
words for fighting
bout, fight, match, smackdown, blue, stoush, battle, clash, fuss, fray, ruckus, tussle and 91 more...
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March 2012
panache, evanescent, erogenous, vestibule, malfeasance, lacuna, blithering, incubate, breech, tabernacle, pearly, upholstery and 79 more...
Noelle Knight "I was a mess: tired, conflicted, and agitated by a the fracas with the biker and Debbie's vandalism." -Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris Feb 5, 2011