Donnybrook

//ˈdɒnɪbɹʊk// adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A brawl or fracas; a scene of chaos.

    "But the Hindus turned out and broke their heads; when, finding lawlessness pleasant, Hindus and Muhammadans together raised an aimless sort of Donnybrook just to see how far they could go."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Chaotic. not-comparable

    "In one of the most thrilling, heart-threatening donnybrook baseball battles in the World Series in recent decades, the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers tried to smother each other in heroics and home runs over four incredible hours Wednesday night in Game 2."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A southern suburb of Dublin, Ireland (Irish grid ref O1731).
  2. 2
    A neighbourhood of Douglas, County Cork, Ireland.
  3. 3
    A community in North Huron township, Huron County, Ontario, Canada.
  4. 4
    A minor city in Ward County, North Dakota, United States.
  5. 5
    An unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Oregon, United States.
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    A settlement in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa.
  2. 7
    A coastal town in the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia.
  3. 8
    A suburb of Melbourne in the City of Whittlesea, Victoria, Australia.
  4. 9
    A town in the Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup, Western Australia.

Synonyms

All synonyms
adoaffrayaltercationargumentbedlambedlam let loose

Example

More examples

"The insults and threats gave way to a donnybrook."

Etymology

Named from Donnybrook Fair, a notoriously disorderly event, held annually from 1204 until the middle of the 19th century. The town of Donnybrook comes from the Irish Domhnach Broc (“The Church of Saint Broc”).

Related phrases

Donnybrook-Balingup

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.