What is "melee"

1640s, from French mêlée, from Old French meslee "brawl, confused fight; mixture, blend" (12c.), noun use of fem. past participle of mesler "to mix, mingle" (see meddle). See also medley. Borrowed in Middle English as melle but lost and then reborrowed 17c.

n. 1 Hand-to-hand combat. 2 A naval or armor battle at an abnormally close range, extending even to disorganized crowds of people or traffic jams, using no ammunition. 3 A noisy or heated fight, argument or scrap. vb. (context video games slang English) to physically hit, as opposed to shooting or blow up.

n. a noisy riotous fight [syn: scrimmage, battle royal]

Melee ( or , French: mêlée ; the French spelling is also quite frequent in English writing), generally refers to disorganized close combat in battles fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts.

The French term was first used in English in c. 1640 (a re-borrowing of a lost Middle English melle, but the Old French borrowing survives in medley and meddle).

In military aviation, a melee has been described as "[a]n air battle in which several aircraft, both friend and foe, are confusingly intermingled".

Lord Nelson described his tactics for the Battle of Trafalgar as inducing a "pell mell battle" focused on engagements between individual ships where the superior morale and skill of the Royal Navy would prevail.

Melee or mêlée is combat fought at close range, usually with lack of organization or cohesion. It may also refer to:

• Hand-to-hand combat in general
• Close combat
• Melee (tournament), a form of "mixed" combat at medieval tournaments

Mêlée is an American rock band from Orange County in California. Formed in 2000, the band consists of Ricky Sans, Chris Cron, Ryan Malloy and Derek Lee Rock. The group released their debut album Everyday Behavior under Los Angeles-based independent label Subcity Records in 2004. In 2006, they were signed with major record label Warner Bros. Records, and subsequently, in 2007 made their major record label debut Devils & Angels. In 2010, they released their follow up to Devils & Angels, on Warner Bros. Records, The Masquerade (album), released in Japan and digitally in North America.

Melee was the first full-length album by Gizmachi. Released independently in 2003, it would help land them a recording contract with Big Orange Clown Records, a subsidiary of Sanctuary Records.

Mêlée is the self-titled and self released EP by Mêlée, released in 2002

Melee is a simple man-to-man combat boardgame designed by Steve Jackson, and released in 1977 by Metagaming Concepts.

In video gaming, the term melee has been adopted and popularized as a cover-all term for close combat.

The term was first applied to games in H.G. Wells's 1913 Little Wars, where the author develops a "melee rule" in his war game. It was later popularized by Dungeons & Dragons, which featured a "melee phase" to represent the fighting of characters outside of bows and magic.

This term still applies to most role-playing games, but is often used in the context of first-person shooter video games to specify a non-ranged attack. This began with the 1992 game Wolfenstein 3D, which featured a knife that could be selected from the inventory, just like a gun. Because of the risk involved in using a melee weapon, they were typically the most powerful weapons available, in terms of damage. Later, Duke Nukem 3D would include a button that allowed the character to kick enemies while still wielding a gun. A Nintendo franchise called Super Smash Bros. had its second game released in 2001 for the GameCube and used the term "melee" in the title.

In strategy games, especially real-time strategy, infantry units that do not use ranged weapons are often called melee units.