brawler
Americannoun
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a person who fights angrily, noisily, and roughly, often under the influence of alcohol.
He was a scrapper and brawler, a drunk and a bully, often hauled before the justices for punching someone.
-
a contentious or argumentative person.
No doubt about it—this congressman is a brawler, but it appears he’s all bark and no bite.
-
a practitioner of a style of boxing characterized by very powerful punches with little variety of technique or skilled footwork.
Most brawlers tend to walk into range with no jabs or setups and very little head movement.
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any computer game of a genre that features hand-to-hand combat, often focused on a hero who is greatly outnumbered.
Join your favorite anime heroes for an epic fight to the finish in this old-school brawler.
Etymology
Origin of brawler
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Panettiere’s high school hero emerged on TV during the “sheroes” era of the aughts, arriving in the wake of Sydney Bristow on “Alias” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” another cheerleader turned supernatural brawler.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2026
For years, SoCal Twitter user @CForce3000, under the name “coldForce,” posted almost exclusively about gaming, and “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” in particular, the same fighting game Allen played competitively as an online brawler.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2026
Opposition leader and Conservative Party head Pierre Poilievre, normally a relentless partisan brawler, has called it "well-crafted and eloquently delivered."
From Barron's ● Jan. 27, 2026
He has been labelled as a brawler throughout his career but proved he has a lot more to offer in sealing this win.
From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2025
Until last night this barber and I were good friends, and would have been this moment, but for the fact that I refused to make a street brawler of myself, as he demanded.
From Under the Liberty Tree A Story of The 'Boston Massacre' by James Otis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
