free-for-all
Americannoun
-
a fight, argument, contest, etc., open to everyone and usually without rules.
- Synonyms:
- donnybrook, melee, scrap, fracas, brawl
-
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
noun
Etymology
Origin of free-for-all
An Americanism dating back to 1880–85
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.
A big reason is because the selloff in the past couple of weeks has been an orderly one, as McCourt highlights, rather than a panicked free-for-all.
From Barron's • Mar. 16, 2026
And if the teacher is showing a video in class, it is a free-for-all, said Trimua.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026
But it’s not a free-for-all piece of personal data for all the family to chew on.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 31, 2025
His inspiration was not any architectural theory or school so much as the workaday landscape of Southern California itself, the brash free-for-all he had noticed as soon as he arrived in L.A.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 5, 2025
They apply to the organization of entire countries: remember the perennial arguments about whether the best form of government is a benign dictatorship, a federal system, or an anarchical free-for-all.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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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.