English
brawl
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /bɹɔːl/
  • (GA) IPA: /bɹɔl/
  • (cot-caught) IPA: /bɹɑl/
Noun

brawl (plural brawls)

  1. A disorderly argument or fight#Noun|fight, usually with a large number#Noun|number of people involved.
    Synonyms: row, scuffle, squabble, Thesaurus:dispute, Thesaurus:fight
    • c. 1591–1595, [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: Printed by Iohn Danter, published 1597, OCLC 503903918 ↗, [Act I, scene i] ↗:
      Three Ciuell brawles bred of an airie word, / By the old Capulet and Mountague, / Haue thrice diſturbd the quiet of our ſtreets.
Translations Verb

brawl (brawls, present participle brawling; past and past participle brawled)

  1. (intransitive) To engage in a brawl; to fight#Verb|fight or quarrel#Verb|quarrel.
    Synonyms: squabble, wrangle
    • c. 1593, [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: Printed by Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, OCLC 55191490 ↗, [Act I, scene iii] ↗:
      I doe the wrong, and firſt began to braule / The ſecret miſchiefes that I ſet abroach, / I lay vnto the grieuous charge of others: [...]
      I do the wrong, and am the first to begin to quarrel. / The secret mischiefs that I set afoot, / I blame on others: [...]
    • 1842 December – 1844 July​, Charles Dickens, chapter XVI, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, OCLC 977517776 ↗, page 207 ↗:
      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.
    • 1998 July 2, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter; 2), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:
      Brilly and Flintlock brawled in potions class, then they brawled on the soccer field, and finally they brawled sitting in the principal's office.
  2. (intransitive) To create a disturbance; to complain loudly.
    • [1430–1440, “XXX. The Tapiteres and Couchers. The Dream of Pilate’s Wife: Jesus before Pilate.”, in Lucy Toulmin Smith, editor, York Plays: The Plays Performed by the Crafts or Mysteries of York on the Day of Corpus Christi in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries: […] (in Middle English), Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, published 1885, OCLC 28074724 ↗, line 380, page 286 ↗:
      Say beggar, why brawlest þou? go boune þe to þe barre.
      (please add an English translation of this quote)]
    • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: Printed by V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, OCLC 55178895 ↗, [Act II, scene i] ↗:
      How now ſir Iohn, what are you brawling here? / Doth this become your place, your time, and buſineſſe?
      Hello, what's this, Sir John [Falstaff], what, are you creating a disturbance here? / Is this becoming of a person of your position, your age, and duties?
    • 1820, Walter Scott, chapter XI, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume III, Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], OCLC 230694662 ↗, page 274 ↗:
      [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. (intransitive) Especially of a rapid stream#Noun|stream run#Verb|running over stone#Noun|stones: to make a loud, confused#Adjective|confused noise#Noun|noise.
    • c. 1598–1600, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i], page 190 ↗, column 1:
      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, [...]
  4. (transitive) To pour#Verb|pour abuse#Noun|abuse on; to scold#Verb|scold.
Conjugation


Conjugation of brawl

infinitive (to) brawl
present tense past tense
1st-person singular brawlbrawled
2nd-person singular* brawl, brawlest*brawled, brawledst*
3rd-person singularbrawls, brawleth* brawled#English|brawled
plural brawl
subjunctive brawl
imperative brawl —
participle> participlesbrawlingbrawled
* Archaic or obsolete.

Translations Verb

brawl (brawls, present participle brawling; past and past participle brawled)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To move#Verb|move to and fro, to quiver#Verb|quiver, to shake#Verb|shake.
    Synonyms: vibrate, waver
Noun

brawl (plural brawls)

  1. (dance, obsolete) A type of dance move#Noun|move or step#Noun|step.
  2. (dance, music, historical) Alternative form of branle
    • c. 1595–1596, W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), imprinted in London: By W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, OCLC 61366361 ↗, [Act III, scene i] ↗:
      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 jig#English|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 [...]


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