free-for-all

[free-fer-awl]

See more synonyms for free-for-all on Thesaurus.com

noun

a fight, argument, contest, etc., open to everyone and usually without rules.
any competition or contested situation that is disordered, impulsive, or out of control: a free-for-all at the buffet table.
Informal. any enterprise or field of endeavor in which various companies, countries, participants, etc., compete without restriction: a price-cutting free-for-all among local stores.

adjective

open to everyone.

Origin of free-for-all

An Americanism dating back to 1880–85

Synonyms for free-for-all

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1. brawl, fracas, scrap, melee, donnybrook.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for free-for-all

melee, brouhaha, riot, fracas, brawl, affray, ruction, battle, broil, fray, row, knock-down-drag-out

Examples from the Web for free-for-all

Contemporary Examples of free-for-all

What started as a website to promote his run for presidency in hours became a free-for-all for negative commentary.
Oops! Putin Creates an Online Forum for Detractors—Then Censors It
Anna Nemtsova
January 13, 2012

Historical Examples of free-for-all

All we could do was to get into the free-for-all with the others.
Shorty McCabe
Sewell Ford
Then the pair of them were at it in a free-for-all that made the woods ring.
Highways in Hiding
George Oliver Smith
I must go as soon as the free-for-all is over, if not before.
Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1896 to 1901
Lucy Maud Montgomery
It is a regatta, a free-for-all, devil-take-the-hindmost affair.
East of Suez
Frederic Courtland Penfield
One never knows what may happen in a free-for-all like this.
The Corner House Girls at School
Grace Brooks Hill

British Dictionary definitions for free-for-all

free-for-all

noun

informal a disorganized brawl or argument, usually involving all those present

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

Word Origin and History for free-for-all

"mass brawl" (one in which all may participate), 1881.