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scuffle

UK/ˈskʌfəl/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,083 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: scuffles

A scuffle is a short confused fight at close quarters. A scuffle broke out, scuffles with police, brief scuffle.

It is short, untidy and rarely serious, which is why it is the word police statements reach for when nobody was much hurt. It carries no suggestion of skill or intent — a scuffle is people pushing. Note that the word is probably Scandinavian, from a root meaning to push or shove.

Definitions of scuffle

  1. 1nounscuffleA short confused fight at close quarters.B2+

    “A scuffle broke out between rival fans outside the stadium.”

scuffle is a brief fight.

Where it comes from

Probably from a Scandinavian root meaning to push or shove. Shove and shuffle are related to the same pushing.

Possibly of gmq -/Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish skuff (“a push”) and skuffa (“to push”), from the Proto-Germanic - base skuf-, from Proto-Indo-European skewbʰ-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skubać (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

scuffle in the wild

  • After occupying the building, the school dean called the police, and a public scuffle ensued that garnered the movement media and intellectual attention.

    Movement of 22 March

  • In 1984 he was involved in a scuffle with Pete Rose over something Rose contended Rimer said about him on his radio program.

    Jeff Rimer

  • During the game, Tennessee guard Bruce Burnham and Baylor guard Charley Horton "got into a scuffle" on the ground.

    1957 Sugar Bowl

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.