fracas
English
Etymology
From French fracas, from Italian fracasso, from fracassare, from Latin infra- + Italian cassare, from Latin quassare.
Pronunciation
Noun
fracas (plural fracases or fracas)
- A noisy disorderly quarrel, fight, brawl, disturbance or scrap.
- 1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, Faber 1999, paperback edition, p. 16,
- And I recall also some years ago, Mr Rayne, who travelled to America as valet to Sir Reginals Mauvis, remarking that a taxi driver in New York regularly addressed his fare in a manner which if repeated in London would end in some sort of fracas, if not in the fellow being frogmarched to the nearest police station.
- 1964, Philip K. Dick, The Simulacra, Vintage Books 2002, paperback edition, p. 37,
- The Oregon-Northern California region had lost much of its population during the fracas of 1980; it had been heavily hit by Red Chinese guided missiles, and of course the clouds of fallout had blanketed it in the subsequent decade.
- 1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, Faber 1999, paperback edition, p. 16,
Synonyms
Translations
a noisy disorderly quarrel