scuffle

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskʌfəl/

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ʌfəl
• Hyphenation: scuf‧fle

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”).

scuffle (plural scuffles)

1. A rough, disorderly fight or struggle at close quarters.
   • 1692, Roger L'Estrange, “Fab[le] CCCCLXX. A Farmer and His Servant.”, in Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: With Morals and Reflexions, London: Printed for R[ichard] Sare, T. Sawbridge, B. Took, M[atthew] Gillyflower, A. & J. Churchil, and J[oseph] Hindmarsh, →OCLC; 2nd corrected and amended edition, London: Printed for R[ichard] Sare, B. Took, M[atthew] Gillyflower, A. & J. Churchil, J[oseph] Hindmarsh, and G[eorge] Sawbridge, 1694, →OCLC, page 435:

     The Dog leaps upon the Serpent, and Tears it to Pieces; but in the Scuffle the Cradle happen'd to be Overturn'd: […]

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 198:

     It appears the Company had received news that one of their captains had been killed in a scuffle with the natives.

   • 2016 June 11, Phil McNulty, “England 1–1 Russia”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 13 June 2016:

     Fights ensued as many England supporters attempted to retreat before some stewards moved in. Intermittent scuffles continued to break out until the section of the crowd where the trouble started was vacated.

2. (slang) Poverty; struggle.
   • 1975, Joni Mitchell (lyrics and music), “The Boho Dance”, in The Hissing of Summer Lawns:

     But even on the scuffle / The cleaner's press was in my jeans

3. (archaic) A child's pinafore or bib.

• scuffle hunter
• scuffly

scuffle (third-person singular simple present scuffles, present participle scuffling, simple past and past participle scuffled)

1. (intransitive) To fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters.
   • 1648, attributed to Charles I of England, Εἰκὼν Βασιλική [Eikōn Basilikē = Royal Portrait]. The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Maiestie, in His Solitvdes and Svfferings, [London?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 15:

     Certainly a gallant man had rather fight to great diſadvantages for number and place in the field in an orderly way, then ſcuffle with an undiſciplined rabble.

2. (intransitive) To walk with a shuffling gait.
   • 1919, Henry B[lake] Fuller, “Cope at His House Party”, in Bertram Cope’s Year: A Novel, Chicago, Ill.: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, →OCLC, page 94:

     But shiftings and readjustments ensued, as they are sure to do with a walking-party. Cope presently found himself scuffling through the thin grass and the briery thickets alongside the young business-man.

3. (slang) To make a living with difficulty, getting by on a low income, to struggle financially.
   • 1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Tell a Green Man Something”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 3 (1928–1935: The Big Apple), page 208:

     Once a good friend of mine, a fine hoofer who was having trouble getting bookings, ran up to that tree, gave it a big smack, and yelled “Lawd please make me a pimp, any kind of a pimp, long as I’m pimpin’. I’m tired of scufflin’ and my feet are too long outa work.”

A borrowing from Dutch schoffel.

scuffle (plural scuffles)

1. A Dutch hoe, manipulated by both pushing and pulling.

• (Dutch hoe): scuffle hoe

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• “scuffle n.¹”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
• “scuffle v.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present