rough-and-tumble

1. 1.

   disorderly fighting

   Synonymshasslescuffletussledogfight

   Broaderfight

1. 1.

   characterized by disorderly action and disregard for rules

   “a rough-and-tumble fight”

   “rough-and-tumble politics”

   “undisguised bare-knuckle capitalism”

   Synonymsbare-knucklebare-knuckled

   Similardisorderly

Questions about rough-and-tumble

What does rough-and-tumble mean?

rough-and-tumble means "disorderly fighting". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in rough-and-tumble?

rough-and-tumble has 4 syllables: roug-h-and--tum-ble. The stress falls on "h-and-".

What is another word for rough-and-tumble?

Close synonyms include hassle, scuffle, tussle, dogfight, bare-knuckle. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is rough-and-tumble a common word?

rough-and-tumble is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.