Crossword clues for scuffle
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scuffle \Scuf"fle\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Scuffled; p. pr. & vb. n. Scuffling.] [Freq. of scuff, v.i.; cf. Sw. skuffa to push, shove, skuff a push, Dan. skuffe a drawer, a shovel, and E. shuffle, shove. See Shove, and cf. Shuffle.]
To strive or struggle with a close grapple; to wrestle in a rough fashion.
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Hence, to strive or contend tumultuously; to struggle confusedly or at haphazard.
A gallant man had rather fight to great disadvantage in the field, in an orderly way, than scuffle with an undisciplined rabble.
--Eikon Basilike.
Scuffle \Scuf"fle\, n.
A rough, haphazard struggle, or trial of strength; a disorderly wrestling at close quarters.
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Hence, a confused contest; a tumultuous struggle for superiority; a fight.
The dog leaps upon the serpent, and tears it to pieces; but in the scuffle the cradle happened to be overturned.
--L'Estrange. A child's pinafore or bib. [Prov. Eng.]
A garden hoe. [Prov. Eng.]
--Halliwell.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"to push or fight in a disorderly manner," 1570s, probably a frequentative form of scuff, of Scandinavian origin. Related: Scuffled; scuffling. As a noun c.1600, from the verb.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A rough disorderly fight or struggle at close quarters 2 A Dutch hoe, manipulated by both pushing and pulling 3 (context archaic English) A child's pinafore or bib. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters. 2 (context intransitive English) To walk with a shuffling gait. 3 (context slang English) To make a living with difficulty, get by on a low income, to struggle financially.
WordNet
n. disorderly fighting [syn: hassle, tussle, dogfingt, rough-and-tumble]
a hoe that is used by pushing rather than pulling [syn: scuffle hoe, Dutch hoe]
an unceremonious and disorganized struggle [syn: scramble]
v. walk by dragging one's feet; "he shuffled out of the room"; "We heard his feet shuffling down the hall" [syn: shuffle, shamble]
fight or struggle in a confused way at close quarters; "the drunken men started to scuffle" [syn: tussle]
Usage examples of "scuffle".
A half-hearted scuffle took place, and Mrs Botham limped down the passage to make her scandalized contribution.
It fuels the street scuffles between gangs of youths from Dawsonite and anti-Dawsonite neighborhoods, and between heathens and Christians, that are a regular part of the annual buildup to St.
At the sound of the whistle they formed themselves into a steaming, panting heap for the sc rum-down and were soon off again swirling and scuffling, with the ball hobbling muddily in a flurry of grunts and shouts.
Norman, 169, 185-7, 197, 200,581 Scrapping, under Washington Treaty, 24-5 SCUFFLE, 489 SCULPIN, 499-50O SEA DOG, 510 Seabees, 290, 410-11, 489, 523-4, 555 SEAHORSE, 329 SEA LION 505, 508 Searles, Lt.
Turold growled, and Aldyth heard scuffling sounds as the feet belonging to G-odric and Tumid mingled.
There was a squeal and a scuffle and a thud, and something grey and hairy made off through the thickets carrying its victim, with Waugh and three of the younger men in hot pursuit.
It drove him from the stall in a headlong charge that took both of them to the floor of the foaling barn, threshing and scuffling about like two giants locked in mortal combat, one in the prime of his manhood and the other wisened in battle.
Tailed by scuffling gamins, the strange little procession moved quickly down the wynd and turned into the roaring Cowgate.
She tried to think of the bargain that was being made with Yves in order to examine its risks and test it for flaws, but her thoughts soon slipped away from that, and away from the memory of shadows and a fall, away from the mixed vision of herringbone cobbles and a quaint child lifting a brightly striped mallet into the innocent air, away from the hard silver chill of a pair of scissors in her own hand and her ignorant scuffle with Yves at the drawingroom door, away from her wakening from a dream of truth into a nightmare of false reality, away from all those disasters into a new consoling dream: a dream of gOillg away to become somehow suave, experienced, independent, admired, highly placed, and then returning returning witty and worldly, equal to anything, elegant in black with pearls and a fur piece and a smart hat.
Through the archway that led back into the church, Hanna heard an odd scuffling sound.
He imagined himself grown oversize, beastlike, scuffling along beside a more human-faced Brock Vond.
He trotted up the stone stairs, and the scuffling sound of his shoes faded upwards into the world of men, and Brat was left alone with the past.
In the corridor an angry rumour of voices, alarmed calls and cries, with thumps and scuffles of hasty feet, in the bedchamber the shrieks persisting without the least hint of failing: as a damned soul might bawl upon its bed of coals .
But if perchance he had to dismount, then, after a while, from the door of that hovel or of that pulperia, with a ferocious scuffle and stifled imprecations, a cargador would fly out head first and hands abroad, to sprawl under the forelegs of the silver-grey mare, who only pricked forward her sharp little ears.
On this occasion he had died, but that Katusthius, seeing a scuffle on shore and a man left for dead, disembarked from a Moreot sacoleva, carried him away, tended and cured him.