How to Use fisticuffs in a Sentence

fisticuffs

plural noun
  • Overall, the fisticuffs are more complex, but the new moves don’t always work well.
    — Gieson Cacho, Star Tribune, 26 Aug. 2020
  • Twitch has gotten into legal fisticuffs with bot-makers in the past.
    — Cecilia D'anastasio, Wired, 10 Sep. 2021
  • No, coming to fisticuffs is really more of a job for bootcut jeans — and Denise has a closet full of 'em.
    — Jodi Walker, EW.com, 14 May 2020
  • There were some fisticuffs, some verbal back-and-forth, because the stakes of shooting Ben and Jen were so high.
    — Chris Lee, Vulture, 15 Oct. 2021
  • What if the runners broke into fisticuffs over a frustratingly slow trek up Main Street to the start line?
    — Amby Burfoot, Outside Online, 7 Oct. 2021
  • Mantis shrimp are capable of their incredible feats of fisticuffs thanks to a spring-like mechanism built into their front legs.
    — Mike Wehner, BGR, 1 May 2021
  • In the end, the movies’ biggest advertisement for themselves will have people talking less about Smith’s acting than about his fisticuffs.
    — New York Times, 28 Mar. 2022
  • Political gatherings are more likely to culminate in a song sung by a choir of pure voices than in fisticuffs between bearded men in barrooms.
    — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 15 Feb. 2022
  • Gibson’s club in particular seemed to relish the brawls—often literal fisticuffs—Lowndes said.
    — James Ross Gardner, The New Yorker, 1 Sep. 2020
  • Hockey has evolved into more of an exhibition of skill than of brute force, though physicality and occasional fisticuffs remain an appeal of the game.
    — oregonlive, 6 May 2022
  • The doors finally reopened and a game straight out of the 1970s walked in, fisticuffs and feistiness going hand in hand on the ice, madness and mayhem going on in the stands.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 6 June 2021
  • The legal fisticuffs came a few months after Day, through Jefferson, received a letter from an attorney for Prince’s estate.
    — Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times, 4 Mar. 2022
  • Both teams brought gritty physicality, on-court pettiness and smug commentary from their star players, as well as potential fisticuffs between two bench players.
    — Dana Scott, The Arizona Republic, 12 May 2022
  • While their earlier cousins might resort to such fisticuffs, the anal-scrapers conduct their rivalries with all the restraint of Victorian gentlemen.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 27 Dec. 2010
  • Amid a sluggish free-agent market, in a winter of player discontent and labor fisticuffs via press release, perhaps no player has been subject to a stranger market than Moustakas.
    — Rustin Dodd, kansascity, 6 Feb. 2018
  • There aren't many sports where containing personal mist and maintaining social distancing are more difficult than the Sweet Science of fisticuffs.
    — Star Tribune, 7 Nov. 2020
  • The standoff between the government and the parliament means little gets done; a new annual budget was passed in the last few days, but only amid quarrels and fisticuffs, according to local media.
    — Dominic Dudley, Forbes, 25 June 2021
  • Perhaps that’s why, freshman hazing and drunken fisticuffs notwithstanding, Dazed and Confuseddoesn’t get weighed down with the enormous stakes of typical coming-of-age movies.
    — Vulture Editors, Vulture, 20 Apr. 2021
  • Moments after a verbal exchange escalated into fisticuffs, the fighters were separated.
    — Josh Peter, USA TODAY, 21 Sep. 2021
  • The opposition parties are already failing to find common cause, with bickering between rival factions sometimes descending into fisticuffs.
    — The Economist, 7 Oct. 2020
  • The film makes the most of its real-world locations (Quebec, Scotland and Iceland, with the reshoots done in Atlanta), practical stunt work and old-school fisticuffs.
    — Scott Mendelson, Forbes, 3 Mar. 2021
  • Amid school closures, teacher strikes and school board fisticuffs, her character, Ava Coleman — the school’s principal and the show’s comedic foil — put a humorous face on the frustrations of millions.
    — New York Times, 11 Apr. 2022
  • In just two months, the Biden administration has shown a surprisingly strong appetite for rhetorical fisticuffs with America’s top adversaries.
    — John Hudson, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Mar. 2021
  • Customize your Kirby and engage in 2D fisticuffs with friends in local multiplayer—with Download Play, only one person has to own a copy of the title, which is nice.
    — PCMAG, 25 Mar. 2022
  • Other potential responses from confronted motorists range from aggressive driving — tailgating, slowing down, cutting off, even bumping or colliding — to pulling off to the side of the road for screaming matches, fisticuffs or worse.
    — Eric Zorn, chicagotribune.com, 9 Apr. 2021
  • Still, the fisticuffs are impressive, the runaway finale gives everyone something to do and this is arguably as close as the franchise has gotten to living up to its reputation as a gender-neutral/racially-diverse action blockbuster franchise.
    — Scott Mendelson, Forbes, 24 June 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fisticuffs.' 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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