brawl
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
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.
Inflected forms:
form: brawls
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: brawls
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: brawling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: brawled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: brawled
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A disorderly argument or fight, usually with a large number of people involved.
pos: noun
examples: 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; [...]
gloss: To engage in a brawl; to fight or quarrel.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I doe the wrong, and firſt began to braule / The ſecret miſchiefes that I ſet abroach, / I lay vnto the grieuous charge of others: [...]
Theſe are the deep and profound Myſteries of Artificial Logick, invented with ſo much care by theſe fallacious Doctors, [...] Theſe are the Nets, and theſe are the Hounds with which they hunt the Truth of all things, whether natural, as in Phyſicks; or ſupernatural, as in Metaphyſicks: but according to the Proverb of Clodius and Varro, can never overtake, by reaſon of their bawling and brawling one with another.
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.
Brilly and Flintlock brawled in potions class, then they brawled on the soccer field, and finally they brawled sitting in the principal's office.
gloss: To create a disturbance; to complain loudly.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
He [one Samuel Tuke] blasphemeth God's Holy Word, preacheth sedition and rebellion, telleth in the pulpit many foolish lies and ridiculous tales, brawleth against the reverend and learned ministers of the country, and raileth upon the worshipful gentry; [...]
gloss: Especially of a rapid stream running over stones: to make a loud, confused noise.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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?
gloss: To pour abuse on; to scold.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
Derived words: brawler
brawling
outbrawl
Translations: