Other forms: brawls
A brawl is a rough noisy fight involving several people. A bar brawl, break up the brawl, a mass brawl.
The number is what makes it one — two people have a fight and several have a brawl — and it implies disorder rather than any skill. In law it usually falls under affray, which is about the fear caused to bystanders. The origin of the word is uncertain.
1nounbrawlA rough noisy fight involving several people.
“A brawl broke out outside the pub after the football match.”
brawl is a fight.
Late Middle English braulen means to clamour or quarrel; the further origin is uncertain.
Middle English
braulen
English, today
brawl
Built from
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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA