Scuffle
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A rough, disorderly fight or struggle at close quarters.
"The Dog leaps upon the Serpent, and Tears it to Pieces; but in the Scuffle the Cradle happen'd to be Overturn'd: […]"
- 2 A type of hoe, manipulated by both pushing and pulling, with a sharp blade parallel with the worked surface; an instance of this type.
"Near-synonyms: collinear hoe, collineal hoe (loosely synonymous)"
- 3 an unceremonious and disorganized struggle wordnet
- 4 Poverty; struggle. slang
"But even on the scuffle / The cleaner's press was in my jeans"
- 5 disorderly fighting wordnet
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- 6 A child's pinafore or bib. archaic
- 7 a hoe that is used by pushing rather than pulling wordnet
- 1 To fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters. intransitive
"Certainly a gallant man had rather fight to great diſadvantages for number and place in the field in an orderly way, then ſcuffle with an undiſciplined rabble."
- 2 To work the soil surface for weeding, etc.
"Near-synonyms: (sometimes synonymous) scarify, cultivate, grub; weed"
- 3 fight or struggle in a confused way at close quarters wordnet
- 4 To walk with a shuffling gait. intransitive
"But shiftings and readjustments ensued, as they are sure to do with a walking-party. Cope presently found himself scuffling through the thin grass and the briery thickets alongside the young business-man."
- 5 walk by dragging one's feet wordnet
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- 6 To make a living with difficulty, getting by on a low income, to struggle financially. slang
"Once a good friend of mine, a fine hoofer who was having trouble getting bookings, ran up to that tree, gave it a big smack, and yelled “Lawd please make me a pimp, any kind of a pimp, long as I’m pimpin’. I’m tired of scufflin’ and my feet are too long outa work.”"
Example
More examples"There was a scuffle in front of the store when the new product was released."
Etymology
Possibly of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish skuff (“a push”) and skuffa (“to push”), from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf- (skuƀ), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skubać (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”).
The noun is a borrowing from Dutch schoffel; the English verb arose via subsequent verbification within English but is also parallel with Dutch schoffelen.
Related phrases
More for "scuffle"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.