free-for-all
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.
open to everyone.
Origin of free-for-all
1Other words for free-for-all
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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use free-for-all in a sentence
They were surely trying to locate as many rightful owners as possible before the media free-for-all, but news got out.
Nazi Art Hoard Just the Tip of the Iceberg for Lost Art | Noah Charney | November 13, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTWhat 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 | THE DAILY BEASTThe Internet has emerged as a pharmaceutical free-for-all in recent years.
It was nearly eleven o'clock when the free-for-all running race was announced.
The Box-Car Children | Gertrude Chandler WarnerThe method pursued was to read a chapter, and follow with a free-for-all exposition of it.
Around Old Bethany | Robert Lee Berry
The most exciting feature of this weekly frivolity consisted of a free-for-all exercise in mental arithmetic.
I wondered about Marian; somehow I still don't like seeing a woman tangled up in a free-for-all.
Highways in Hiding | George Oliver SmithThe Virginia reel was a marvel of supple, exaggerated grace and the quadrille looked like a free-for-all for unbroken colts.
Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up | Clarence Edward Mulford
British Dictionary definitions for free-for-all
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
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