Word Study
free-for-all
CIDE DICTIONARY
free-for-all, n.
- a noisy and disordered fight conducted without rules. [WordNet 1.5]
- Any vigorous competition in which anyone can compete, with few or no rules, and in which the winner is unpredictable; as, when they began to distribute the free food, the orderly line of hungry recipients degenerated into a free-for-all. [PJC]
THESAURUS
free-for-all
Bedlam let loose, ado, affray, bedlam, blast, bobbery, bother, brawl, broil, brouhaha, charivari, chirm, clamor, clangor, clap, clatter, commotion, din, discord, disturbance, donnybrook, donnybrook fair, drunken brawl, dustup, embroilment, fight, flap, foofaraw, fracas, fray, fuss, hassle, hell broke loose, helter-skelter, howl, hubbub, hue and cry, hullabaloo, jangle, knock-down-and-drag-out, loud noise, melee, noise, noise and shouting, outcry, pandemonium, pell-mell, pother, racket, rampage, rattle, rhubarb, riot, roar, rough-and-tumble, roughhouse, row, ruckus, ruction, rumble, rumpus, scramble, scrimmage, shindy, shivaree, stir, thunder, thunderclap, tintamarre, to-do, trouble, tumult, turmoil, uproarROGET THESAURUS
free-for-all
Disorder
N disorder, derangement, irregularity, anomaly, anarchy, anarchism, want of method, untidiness, disunion, discord, confusion, confusedness, mishmash, mix, disarray, jumble, huddle, litter, lumber, cahotage, farrago, mess, mash, muddle, muss, hash, hodgepodge, hotch-potch, hotch-pot, imbroglio, chaos, omnium gatherum, medley, mere mixture, fortuitous concourse of atoms, disjecta membra, rudis indigestaque moles, complexity, turmoil, ferment, to-do, trouble, pudder, pother, row, rumble, disturbance, hubbub, convulsion, tumult, uproar, revolution, riot, rumpus, stour, scramble, brawl, fracas, rhubarb, fight, free-for-all, row, ruction, rumpus, embroilment, melee, spill and pelt, rough and tumble, whirlwind, bear garden, Babel, Saturnalia, donnybrook, Donnybrook Fair, confusion worse confounded, most admired disorder, concordia discors, Bedlam, all hell broke loose, bull in a china shop, all the fat in the fire, diable a' quatre, Devil to pay, pretty kettle of fish, pretty piece of work, pretty piece of business, disorderly person, disorderly persons offence, misdemeanor, slattern, slut (libertine), disorderly, orderless, out of order, out of place, out of gear, irregular, desultory, anomalous, acephalous, deranged, aimless, disorganized, straggling, unmethodical, immethodical, unsymmetric, unsystematic, untidy, slovenly, dislocated, out of sorts, promiscuous, indiscriminate, chaotic, anarchical, unarranged &c (arrange), confused, deranged, topsy-turvy, shapeless, disjointed, out of joint, troublous, riotous, complex, irregularly, by fits, by fits and snatches, by fits and starts, pellmell, higgledy-piggledy, helter-skelter, harum-scarum, in a ferment, at sixes and sevens, at cross-purposes, upside down, the cart before the horse, hysteron proteron, chaos is come again, the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.For further exploring for "free-for-all" in Webster Dictionary Online