How to Use donnybrook in a Sentence

donnybrook

noun
  • A donnybrook has erupted over the court's decision.
  • The donnybrook was on, sweeping the two from the middle of the bus to the front.
    — David J. Neal, miamiherald, 23 Apr. 2018
  • Paramedics were called after several players in the scrum were bloodied in the donnybrook.
    — Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Adding insult to injury has been a donnybrook over the Western Wall.
    — James Hohmann, Washington Post, 19 May 2017
  • In this hectic, insane, breakneck, donnybrook-a-day world of ours, whittling is a gateway to inner peace.
    — Tom Angleberger, WIRED, 21 Aug. 2009
  • But without those stabilizing forces, Democrats are getting ready to have a big donnybrook.
    — Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 23 June 2026
  • The measurement donnybrook is the latest fissure between Nielsen and its media client base.
    — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 24 Mar. 2026
  • Then Odor connected with a right-handed punch squarely to Bautista’s jaw, touching off quite a donnybrook .
    — Noah Trister, The Seattle Times, 5 May 2017
  • What followed is a legal donnybrook that has the region’s top law firms fighting to keep documents about the hospital under seal.
    — John Caniglia, cleveland, 17 Apr. 2021
  • But those expecting a donnybrook will likely be disappointed, church experts say.
    — Daniel Burke, CNN, 18 May 2017
  • Second, there is that political donnybrook sense of a right ugly fight while people hammer each other in hopes of furthering their own agendas.
    — Erik Sherman, Forbes, 25 Dec. 2021
  • But money has settled previous donnybrooks over new technologies.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 16 Feb. 2024
  • The benches-clearing incident might be the only thing keeping alive graying terms like ruckus, donnybrook, rumble, battle royal and rhubarb.
    — Jeff Miller, Orange County Register, 10 June 2017
  • Then, tight end Demetrius Harris and defensive end Ben Banogu got together for a donnybrook.
    — Dan Labbe, cleveland.com, 15 Aug. 2019
  • On Monday, when the panel conducted a hearing about the Mueller report, there was a partisan donnybrook.
    — Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker, 14 June 2019
  • The dynastic feuding has sucked most of the oxygen out of the room as the media, understandably, focused on the old-fashioned Irish donnybrook.
    — Stu Bykofsky, Philly.com, 19 Mar. 2018
  • But in the partisan donnybrook surrounding the bill’s passage, little attention was paid to the fact that the benefits cut off at the margin rather than sloping down.
    — The Economist, 27 Feb. 2021
  • That quickly revealed itself to be gun violence, and given the verbal blood sport the issue triggers, a debate could have devolved into a full-fledged donnybrook.
    — Meredith Mendelsohn, New York Times, 22 June 2018
  • The unequal three-way donnybrook — film critics on one side, the vox populi and aggrieved artists on the other — is a digital-era twist on a perennial Hollywood story.
    — Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Jan. 2022
  • But the defensive aggressiveness did lead to a donnybrook where Lopez was ejected — an incident that will carry a suspension for Pomona’s next game.
    — Jake Shapiro, The Denver Post, 15 Nov. 2019
  • Both guys are going to come out swinging and tire themselves out, but Danny’s going to bring it early and often to make Errol prove he’s fully recovered in a donnybrook.
    — Manouk Akopyan, Los Angeles Times, 5 Dec. 2020
  • But for those either inside the historic Birmingham venue or watching on Facebook, the Democratic donnybrook came as somewhat of a shock.
    — John Sharp, AL.com, 25 Apr. 2018
  • Wilson then followed up his battering of Buchnevich by body-slamming Artemiy Panarin to the ice during the ensuing donnybrook.
    — Jim Reineking, USA TODAY, 4 May 2021
  • Absolutely nobody imagined that scenario in the aftermath of their May 2017 donnybrook that got both suspended.
    — John Shea, SFChronicle.com, 31 Oct. 2019
  • The dog-waste donnybrook was similar to another recent clash in Brooklyn that saw a 75-year-old grandmother jumped and beaten for complaining that a dog walker was not cleaning up the pooch’s poop.
    — Kerry Burke, New York Daily News, 25 Apr. 2026
  • In 2017, George became involved in a political donnybrook in his back yard, with Cleveland City Council.
    — John Caniglia, cleveland, 10 Aug. 2020
  • More of the big TV-news operations feature hot-talk programming in primetime that is designed to appeal to partisan audiences, or just those looking for tension or a verbal donnybrook.
    — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 10 Nov. 2025
  • Confrontation of all kinds is a key comedic element of Letterkenny, and not just because Canadians like a good donnybrook and have the capacity, male and female, to beat your ass solid while looking like the friendliest folks around.
    — Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 July 2018
  • The donnybrook between Disney and Ron DeSantis keeps escalating, and what should be a dispute over corporate welfare has devolved into an unfortunate political brawl that both could lose.
    — The Editorial Board, wsj.com, 27 Apr. 2023
  • Once, according to a story pitcher George Brunet told Sports Illustrated, a manager’s argument with an umpire turned into an all-out donnybrook involving players and fans and photographers and reporters, too.
    — Rustin Dodd, The Athletic, 26 Aug. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'donnybrook.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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