brawl
nounverbverbnounattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//bɹɔːl//
- Australia//bɹoːl//
- Scotland//bɾɔl//
- //bɹɔl//
- //bɹɑl//
A disorderly argument or fight, usually with a large number of people involved.
noun
- 1
A disorderly argument or fight, usually with a large number of people involved.
Three Ciuell brawles bred of an airie word, / By the old Capulet and Mountague, / Haue thrice diſturbd the quiet of our ſtreets.
The complaint charged that the defendants, on, etc., at, etc., "in a certain public place, to wit, in a certain school-house in which a singing-school was then and there being held, did make a great brawl and tumult, and stamped their feet on the floor, hissed, used loud and saucy language, and were guilty of rude, indecent, and disorderly conduct."
It has been reported that an entertainment took place not long ago in a certain "hot spot" in New York City, and it has been charged that members of the Federal Communications Commission were present; that they got into a drunken brawl; and in the brawl some woman was hurt, her arm twisted.
Robert Carlyle appears as Begbie, who starts brawls with almost anyone who crosses his path; [...]
Etymology
The verb is derived from Late Middle English braulen, brall, brallen (“to clamour, to shout; to quarrel; to boast”); further etymology is uncertain, but the word could be related to bray and ultimately imitative. It may be cognate with Danish bralle (“to chatter, jabber”), Dutch brallen (“to boast”), Low German brallen (“to brag”), Middle High German prālen (“to boast, flaunt”) (modern German prahlen (“to boast, flaunt, vaunt”)). The noun is derived from Middle English brall, bralle, braul, braule, brawle (“disturbance, squabble; brawl”), from the verb braulen: see above.
verb
- 1
To engage in a brawl; to fight or quarrel.
I doe the wrong, and firſt began to braule / The ſecret miſchiefes that I ſet abroach, / I lay vnto the grieuous charge of others: [...]
As long as they [Xanthippe and Myrto, Socrates' wives] diſagreed, they were continually ſcolding, brawling, or fighting, with each other; and whenever they agreed, they both joined in brawling [verb sense 2] at him, and often fell on him with their fiſts as well as with their tongues, and beat him ſoundly.
[U]pon every trifle, the vitiated faculties of thy ſoul are inflamed with immoderate and moſt irregular paſſion, ſo that thou often brawleſt, and art made thereby to roar like a wild bull caught in a thicket: [...]
One who rides at all hazards of limb and life in the chase of a fox, will prefer to ride recklessly at most times. So it was with these gentlemen. He was the greatest patriot, in their eyes, who brawled the loudest, and who cared the least for decency.
- 2
To create a disturbance; to complain loudly.
Say beggar, why brawlest þou? go boune þe to þe barre.
She [the son's wife] is one that is euermore full of ſtryfe / And of all Scolders beareth the Bell. / When ſhe ſpeaketh beſt, ſhe brawleth her tonge / When ſhe is ſtyll ſhe fyghteth apace: / She is an olde Witch thoughe ſhe be yonge, / No mirth with her, no ioye or ſolace.
How now ſir Iohn, what are you brawling here? / Doth this become your place, your time, and buſineſſe?
[I]f a king will not remain at home and slay his own game, methinks he should not brawl too loud if he finds it killed to his hand.
- 3
Especially of a rapid stream running over stones: to make a loud, confused noise.
To day my Lord of Amiens, and my ſelfe, / Did ſteale behinde him as he lay along / Vnder an oake, whoſe anticke roote peepes out / Vpon the brooke that brawles along this wood, [...]
―When low-hung clouds each ſtar of ſummer hide, / And fireleſs are the valleys far and wide, / Where the brook brawls along the painful road, / Dark with bat haunted aſhes ſtretching broad, [...]
What seek we here / Amid this waste where desolation scowls, / And the red torrent, brawling down the linn, / Sings everlasting discord?
- 4
To pour abuse on; to scold.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo move to and fro, to quiver, to shake.
Etymology
Possibly from French branler (“to shake”), from Old French brandeler (“to shake, wave; to agitate”), from brand, branc (“blade of a sword”), from Vulgar Latin *brandus (“firebrand; flaming sword; sword”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenu- (“to burn”).
noun
- 1
obsoleteA type of dance move or step.
- 2
Variant of branlehistoricalAlternative form of branle (“dance of French origin dating from the 16th century, performed by couples in a circle or a line; the music for this dance”).
Boy. Maiſter, will you win your loue with a french braule? / Brag[gart]. How meaneſt thou? brawling in French. / Boy. No my complet Maiſter, but to Iigge off a tune at the tongues ende, canarie to it with your feete, humour it with turning vp your eylids, ſigh a note and ſing a note ſomtime through the throate, if you ſwallowed loue with ſinging loue [...]
Etymology
From French branle (“type of dance; an act of shaking, a shake”), from branler (“to shake”), from Old French brandeler (“to shake, wave; to agitate”); see further at etymology 2. Alternatively, the word could be derived from brawl (“(obsolete) to move to and fro, quiver, shake”): see etymology 2.
Forms
- plural
- brawls
- past tense
- brawled
- past participle
- brawled
- present participle
- brawling
- third person singular
- brawls
brawl · A disorderly argument or fight, usually with a large number of people involved.
brazil · The hard, brown wood of a certain species of the tribe…Brazil · A large Portuguese-speaking country in South America.…Brazilian · A person from Brazil or of Brazilian descent.