free-for-all
(Redirected from free for all)
English
editEtymology
edit(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfɹiːfəɹɔːl/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈfɹiːfɚɔːl/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
editfree-for-all (plural free-for-alls)
- Chaos; a chaotic situation lacking rules or control.
- When the fire alarm went off, it was a free-for-all.
- 1919, Burton Jesse Hendrick, The Age of Big Business[1]:
- Competition was the order of the day: the industrial warfare of the sixties was a free-for-all.
- 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 134:
- […] this was a consequence of building Tubes by means of a competitive free-for-all. Each company wanted to expand its territory at the expense of the others.
- (video games) Deathmatch, sometimes specifically one in which every player is pitted against all the others.
Translations
editchaos
|
deathmatch — see deathmatch
See also
edit- kick bollocks scramble (UK, informal)
- law of the jungle
Adjective
editfree-for-all (not comparable)
- (of a fight, competition etc.) Open to anyone and with no or few rules.
- 1913 October, Jack London, The Valley of the Moon, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC:
- Men, as well as women, were springing in to the rope and pulling. No longer was it team against team, but all Oakland against all San Francisco, festooned with a free-for-all fight.
See also
editFurther reading
edit- “free-for-all”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.