FREE-FOR-ALL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Free-for-all

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noun

free-for-all n.

A noisy and disordered fight conducted without rules.

Synonyms: brawl.

Hence: Any vigorous competition in which anyone can compete, with few or no rules, and in which the winner is unpredictable; as, when they began to distribute the free food, the orderly line of hungry recipients degenerated into a free-for-all.

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Etymology of 'Free-for-all'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Free-for-all" Quotes from Famous Books

... and more daring, till finally a boy named Pat Casey, deliberately tripped Carol, sending him sprawling on the ice. He was pretty badly shaken up and broke a skate strap. The trio considered this insult past endurance and a free-for-all fight ensued. ...

— Chicken Little Jane • Lily Munsell Ritchie

... his apartments he would have prize fights and chicken fights; and bloodthirsty exhibitions called "purring matches," in which men tried to bark each other's shins; or perhaps a "battle royal," with a diamond scarf-pin dangling from the ceiling, and half a dozen negroes in a free-for-all fight ...

— The Metropolis • Upton Sinclair

... him from his position and to hold it successfully against all comers themselves. The game, if played fairly, simply consists in fair pulls and pushes without grasping clothing, but if played roughly it is almost a "free-for-all" fight. ...

— Outdoor Sports and Games • Claude H. Miller

... competition can cheat her. So has Italy. So has Russia. So have the countries of South America. So has Japan. So has Britain. So has the United States. The sooner we get back to a basis of natural specialties and drop this free-for-all system of grab, the sooner we shall be sure of international self-respect—and international peace. Trying to take the trade of the world can promote war. It cannot promote prosperity. Some day even the international bankers ...

— My Life and Work • Henry Ford

... as limp and heavy as possible, and it ended in a free-for-all scuffle which was finally shepherded into the dining-room by Mrs. O'Mara, who was laughing so herself that she had to stop and catch ...

— I've Married Marjorie • Margaret Widdemer

... quick questioning glance toward Lee's inscrutable face; now and then he sighed, his thoughts his own. Bud Lee, knowing his companion as he did, shrewdly guessed that Carson was hoping that events might so befall that there would be an open, free-for-all fight and that he might not be forced to play the restless part of a mere onlooker. ...

— Judith of Blue Lake Ranch • Jackson Gregory

... while and rips and raves about that 'trick-horse thing.' He thinks you know something. Engle says you don't and never did, but that Elisha is a dog, same as he said at first. Wouldn't surprise me none if they got into a free-for-all fight over there because they're all losers and all sore. Jock Merritt is sorer'n anybody; he bet some of his own money and he thinks they ought to give it back to him.... Now, just between friends, what happened to that horse to-day? You told me ...

— Old Man Curry - Race Track Stories • Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan

Words linked to "Free-for-all" : scrap, brawl, fight, fighting