fisticuffs meaning: definition, quotations

fisticuffs

noun

UK /ˈfɪs.tɪ.kʌfs/ · US /ˈfɪs.tɪˌkəfs/

plural of fisticuff

Informal An impromptu fight with the fists, usually between only two people.

So he obſerves that all ſimple Governments are apt to ſome evil that is peculiar and conſequential to their Nature, as he inſtanceth in a Kingdom changed into Monarchy abſolute, by which he means that which we now call Tyranny; Ariſtocracy into Oligarchy, and Democracy into Beſtial Chirocracy, when the Seditious of people prevail more by Fiſticuffs than reaſon: […]1686, Nathaniel Johnston, “III: That the People are not the Original of Authority and Government”, in The Excellency of Monarchical Government, Eſpecially of the Engliſh Monarchy […] , London: T. B. for Robert Clavel, page 19:
People who share a cell in the Basti[l]le […] if they do not immediately fall to fisticuffs, will find some possible ground of compromise.1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Virginibus Puerisque”, in Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers:

1 more example

[…], his head all scarred with the sticks and fisticuffs which he had got in the taverns at Utrecht, […]1890, Edmondo de Amicis, translated by Caroline Tilton, Holland and Its People, Chapter XII:

Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Dated Bare-knuckled boxing, a form of boxing done without boxing gloves or similar padding.

In his college days of athletic exercises, Mr. Crisparkle had known professors of the Noble Art of fisticuffs, […]1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, “Chapter XVII”, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1870, →OCLC: