Definition of "knockdown-dragout" []

• Marked by roughness, violence, and acrimony: a knockdown-dragout fight. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "CROWLEY: It was not the knockdown-dragout so many predicted, but it was pointed."
• "So if we didn't get the knockdown-dragout that some expected last night, was the debate at least smart, pointed?"
• "Sometimes, it's fun to just get into a knockdown-dragout verbal brawl."