Bare-knuckling

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Boxing that is done without boxing gloves. uncountable

    "In fact, the ring's transition from bare-knuckling to boxing was, in practical effect, only a slight move forward."

  2. 2
    Ruthless competition. uncountable

    "But there were danger signs in the polls that Carter's bare-knuckling was debasing what one aide called “his strongest positive: you Jimmy the Mean says he's sorry, and Ronald Reagan scrambles for the middle of the road."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of bare-knuckle form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
aggressivebare-knuckledbarefistedrough-and-tumble

Example

More examples

"In fact, the ring's transition from bare-knuckling to boxing was, in practical effect, only a slight move forward."

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