Bare-knuckle
adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To box without boxing gloves.
"...at 36 he is still able to bare-knuckle the swagger out of the biggest lumberjack in the Northwest."
- 2 To attack or overpower ruthlessly.
"“I'm not surprised,” she said, “but your will is strong and your sense of humor is great. They ought to bare-knuckle almost any problem you do have."
- 1 Without boxing gloves. not-comparable
"The bare-knuckle boxing era ended in the early 20th century, when gloves were introduced, stricter rules implemented and oversight organizations formed."
- 2 Characterized by ruthlessly attacking or overpowering an opponent, especially when using underhanded techniques. broadly, not-comparable
"a bareknuckle exchange on the Senate floor"
- 1 characterized by disorderly action and disregard for rules wordnet
Example
More examples"The bare-knuckle boxing era ended in the early 20th century, when gloves were introduced, stricter rules implemented and oversight organizations formed."
Related phrases
More for "bare-knuckle"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.