fighting word
Americannoun
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.
We was fighting word counts, so a lot of my essay got chopped up.
From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2022
The main target of its critique is also the principal object of its affection, which we might call — using a name that has lately become something of a fighting word — cinema.
From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2022
Then she turned the case over and spied a fighting word: Soul, short for SoulCycle, a popular chain of cycling studios in New York and Los Angeles.
From New York Times ● Dec. 21, 2012
In isolationist Quebec, "conscription" is a fighting word.
From Time Magazine Archive
"It may be interesting to note that from this experience of Buffalo with Michigan the expression, 'I've got you Buffaloed,' is said to have originated, and to-day Michigan players use it as a fighting word."
From Football Days Memories of the Game and of the Men behind the Ball by Edwards, William Hanford
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.
