Meaning

4 senses
  1. (intransitive)To fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters.

    raufen, balgen

    дра́тьсяdrátʹsja

    битисяbytysja, чубитисяčubytysja

    fight or struggle in a confused way at close quarters

  2. (intransitive)To walk with a shuffling gait.

    schlurfen

    ша́ркатьšárkatʹ

    човгатиčovhaty, плентатисяplentatysja

    walk by dragging one's feet

  3. (slang)To make a living with difficulty, getting by on a low income, to struggle financially.

  4. To work the soil surface for weeding, etc.

    Near-synonyms: (sometimes synonymous) scarify, cultivate, grub; weed

Examples

6 sentences
  1. There was a scuffle in front of the store when the new product was released.

    Як випустили новий продукт, біля магазину відбулася сутичка.

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  2. Kalman heard leaves scuffling.

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  3. The president’s supporters reacted with outrage and there were incidents of protesters scuffling with police.

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  4. A scuffle is not an organized bout: it is a free-for-all, with fists flying in any and all directions.

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  5. Sami and Layla's scuffle became intense inside the car.

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Translations

5 languages
Українська
By meaning 2
to fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters:
to walk with a shuffling gait:
Русский
By meaning 2
to fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters:
to walk with a shuffling gait:
Deutsch
By meaning 2
to fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters:
to walk with a shuffling gait:

Origin

Possibly of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish skuff (“a push”) and skuff

Possibly of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish skuff (“a push”) and skuffa (“to push”), from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf- (skuƀ), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skubać (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”).

The noun is a borrowing from Dutch schoffel; the English verb arose via subsequent verbification within English but is also parallel with Dutch schoffelen.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

scuffles, scuffling, scuffled, scuffled
Base formscuffle · to scuffle
3rd person singularscuffles
Present participlescuffling
Past simplescuffled
Past participlescuffled

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theyscuffle
he, she, itscuffles

Past simpleLesson

all personsscuffled

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave scuffled
he, she, ithas scuffled

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill scuffle

Synonyms

7 synonyms
Close in meaning
  • fight or struggle in a confused way at close quarters:tussle
  • walk by dragging one's feet:shuffleshamble

Word family

1 related words
Derivedscuffler

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
scuffle — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto