as in brawl
a rough and often noisy fight usually involving several people
a verbal disagreement at the football game soon turned into a general melee involving scores of spectators
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Recent Examples of melee
Hurley clearly believed sending his team to the handshake line was inviting a conflagration and took the necessary steps to prevent a melee at DFA.
—
Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 3 Feb. 2025
What started as an social media dispute exploded into a bloody melee that ended with the stabbing death of Jennira Roundtree, a mom of four.
—Leonard Greene, New York Daily News, 9 Jan. 2025
In the melee that ensued, Chinese miners working in other rooms rushed in to defend their countrymen.
—Michael Luo, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2025
Each crew member has different stats and proficiencies for gunnery, ship repair, melee attack, and melee defense.
—PCMAG, 20 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for melee
Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 3 Feb. 2025
What started as an social media dispute exploded into a bloody melee that ended with the stabbing death of Jennira Roundtree, a mom of four.
—Leonard Greene, New York Daily News, 9 Jan. 2025
In the melee that ensued, Chinese miners working in other rooms rushed in to defend their countrymen.
—Michael Luo, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2025
Each crew member has different stats and proficiencies for gunnery, ship repair, melee attack, and melee defense.
—PCMAG, 20 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for melee
Cite this Entry
“Melee.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/melee. Accessed 3 Apr. 2025.
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