free-for-all

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

A situation where everyone competes or fights without rules

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

tình huống cạnh tranh hoặc đánh nhau không có quy tắc

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a fight where anything goes
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The sale turned into a free-for-all, with shoppers grabbing items off the shelves

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “free-for-all” mean?

A situation where everyone competes or fights without rules Literally: a fight where anything goes

Is “free-for-all” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.