bare-knuckle

or bare-knuck·led

[ bair-nuhk-uhl ]

/ ˈbɛərˈnʌk əl /

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adjective

(of a boxer) wearing no boxing gloves: These are bare-knuckle kids who need to learn a higher level of boxing.

(of a boxing match or other fight) without gloves: a bare-knuckle brawl.

without regard for rules or niceties; rough-and-tumble: a bare-knuckle approach to judicial reform.

adverb

without boxing gloves: He’s a scrappy guy who likes to fight bare-knuckle.

in a manner that bypasses rules and niceties: If we have to take on these land developers bare-knuckle, we will.

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Sometimes bare·knuck·le, bare·knuck·led .

Origin of bare-knuckle

First recorded in 1880–85; bare¹ + knuckle

Words nearby bare-knuckle

barehanded, bare hands, with one's, bareheaded, Bareilly, bare infinitive, bare-knuckle, barelegged, barely, bare lymphocyte syndrome, bare-naked, Barenboim

How to use bare-knuckle in a sentence

This year, a bare-bones welfare program will continue into the New Year without being updated.
To GOP Congress, as Usual, It’s Welfare on the Chopping Block|Monica Potts|December 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“Bare [sic] with me on vlogmas,” she told her fans in a Tweet.
Meet Zoella—The Newbie Author Whose Book Sales Topped J.K. Rowling|Lucy Scholes|December 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The further forward bare-boned science goes, however, the more forceful the counter- response.
Honey Boo Boo, Snake Oil, and Ebola: The Weird World of Young Living Essential Oils|Kent Sepkowitz|December 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Houses were evacuated and stripped bare, and civilians vanished at the sight of a truck.
‘Argo’ in the Congo: The Ghosts of the Stanleyville Hostage Crisis|Nina Strochlic|November 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST

The American Academy of Pediatrics advocates for infants to be put to sleep in a bare crib to prevent SIDS.
Kids Eat the Darndest Things: Laundry Pods, Teething Necklaces, and More Of The Weirdest Stuff Sending Kids to the E.R.|Russell Saunders|November 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Eggs and nestlings were found lying on the bare soil at the inner ends of the burrows; no nesting material was found.
Summer Birds From the Yucatan Peninsula|Erwin E. Klaas
Sometimes the stems are quite bare; on other occasions they are partly branched; in any case the branches are short.
How to Know the Ferns|S. Leonard Bastin
She thrust a bare, white arm from the curtain which shielded her open door, and received the cup from his hands.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories|Kate Chopin
From Canada on the north, to Texas on the south, the hot winds had laid the land seemingly bare.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
Her little neck and arms were bare, and her hair, artificially crimped, stood out like fluffy black plumes over her head.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories|Kate Chopin

British Dictionary definitions for bare-knuckle

bare-knuckle

adjective

without boxing glovesa bare-knuckle fight

aggressive and without reservationsa bare-knuckle confrontation

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012