come to blows

Idioms  

1. Begin to fight. For example, It hardly seems worth coming to blows over a dollar! Thomas Hobbes had it in Leviathan (1651): “Their controversie must either come to blowes, or be undecided.” This term is also put as fall to blows, especially in Britain. [Late 1500s]

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Example Sentences

In most refugee settlements, the government has run out of land to allocate to migrants for crop cultivation, and in at least one, refugees have come to blows over the plots that are available.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025

It’s been nearly seven years since audiences saw Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdock come to blows for the last time in Netflix’s “Daredevil.”

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 4, 2025

In 2022, Liam told Logan Paul's podcast that things had almost come to blows.

From BBC • Oct. 16, 2024

But Medellín Legorreta worries the two heavyweights may come to blows as forest fragmentation worsens and climate change brings further warming and prolonged droughts.

From Science Magazine • Oct. 11, 2023

But Haie is rather the executive arm, operating under Kat’s orders when things come to blows.

From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque