Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A noisy quarrel or fight.
  • noun Slang A loud party.
  • intransitive verb To quarrel or fight noisily.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A kind of dance; a branle.
  • To speak loudly and complainingly or angrily; be clamorous or noisy; quarrel noisily and indecently.
  • To roar, as water flowing over a pebbly or rocky bed; make a loud babbling noise.
  • Synonyms To wrangle, squabble, dispute (noisily).
  • To wrangle about; be noisy or contentious regarding.
  • To drive away or beat down by noise.
  • noun See braul.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To quarrel noisily and outrageously.
  • intransitive verb To complain loudly; to scold.
  • intransitive verb To make a loud confused noise, as the water of a rapid stream running over stones.
  • noun A noisy quarrel; loud, angry contention; a wrangle; a tumult.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A fight, usually with a huge amount of people involved.
  • verb To engage in a brawl; to fight or quarrel.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a noisy fight in a crowd
  • noun an uproarious party
  • verb to quarrel noisily, angrily or disruptively

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English braul, from braullen, to quarrel.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English braule, brall "brawl, squabble" from braulen, brallen "to clamour, boast, quarrel". Compare Middle High German prālen "to boast, flaunt" (German prahlen "to vaunt, boast, flaunt"), Low German brallen "to brag", Dutch brallen "to boast", Danish bralle "chatter, jabber".

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Examples

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  • As we follow His right-side-up ways, we discover that turning the other cheek keeps us from getting caught in a brawl, that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and that dying to self is life at its best.

    January 27, 2011