"come to blows" meaning in English

See come to blows in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-come to blows.ogg [Australia] Forms: comes to blows [present, singular, third-person], coming to blows [participle, present], came to blows [past], come to blows [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|come<,,came,come> to blows}} come to blows (third-person singular simple present comes to blows, present participle coming to blows, simple past came to blows, past participle come to blows)
  1. (idiomatic) To fight; to initiate physical conflict, especially subsequent to escalating tension or antagonism. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Violence
    Sense id: en-come_to_blows-en-verb-iSlIy4K2 Disambiguation of Violence: 52 48
  2. (impersonal) To degrade into a fight or physical conflict (in reference to an argument or to a situation of tension or antagonism). Tags: impersonal Categories (topical): Violence
    Sense id: en-come_to_blows-en-verb-q0KGPqth Disambiguation of Violence: 52 48 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 31 69 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 32 68 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 27 73
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: come to grips, duke it out Related terms: throw hands

Download JSON data for come to blows meaning in English (3.9kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "comes to blows",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "coming to blows",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "came to blows",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "come to blows",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "come<,,came,come> to blows"
      },
      "expansion": "come to blows (third-person singular simple present comes to blows, present participle coming to blows, simple past came to blows, past participle come to blows)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "51 49",
      "word": "throw hands"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "52 48",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Violence",
          "orig": "en:Violence",
          "parents": [
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1841, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 6, in The Deerslayer",
          "text": "I'll follow you, Floating Tom, into the Mingo camp, on such an arr'nd, and will strive to do my duty, should we come to blows; though, never having been tried in battle, I don't like to promise more than I may be able to perform.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1966 September 9, “LA Jumpy? Two Stars Near Blows”, in Milwaukee Sentinel, USA, retrieved 2010-08-29",
          "text": "The argument grew heated and teammates grabbed the pair to prevent them from coming to blows.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 March 24, Rania Abouzeid, “Arab-Kurd Tensions Could Threaten Iraq's Peace”, in Time",
          "text": "Iraqi security forces and peshmerga almost came to blows in the disputed area of Khanaqin, in Diyala province, after Iraqi troops tried to enter the mixed town.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To fight; to initiate physical conflict, especially subsequent to escalating tension or antagonism."
      ],
      "id": "en-come_to_blows-en-verb-iSlIy4K2",
      "links": [
        [
          "fight",
          "fight"
        ],
        [
          "initiate",
          "initiate"
        ],
        [
          "conflict",
          "conflict"
        ],
        [
          "escalating",
          "escalate"
        ],
        [
          "tension",
          "tension"
        ],
        [
          "antagonism",
          "antagonism"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To fight; to initiate physical conflict, especially subsequent to escalating tension or antagonism."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "31 69",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "32 68",
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          "_dis": "27 73",
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          "parents": [
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They exchanged insults, without it coming to blows.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To degrade into a fight or physical conflict (in reference to an argument or to a situation of tension or antagonism)."
      ],
      "id": "en-come_to_blows-en-verb-q0KGPqth",
      "links": [
        [
          "fight",
          "fight"
        ],
        [
          "conflict",
          "conflict"
        ],
        [
          "tension",
          "tension"
        ],
        [
          "antagonism",
          "antagonism"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(impersonal) To degrade into a fight or physical conflict (in reference to an argument or to a situation of tension or antagonism)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "impersonal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-come to blows.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9e/En-au-come_to_blows.ogg/En-au-come_to_blows.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/En-au-come_to_blows.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "51 49",
      "word": "come to grips"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "51 49",
      "word": "duke it out"
    }
  ],
  "word": "come to blows"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English verbs",
    "en:Violence"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "comes to blows",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "coming to blows",
      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "form": "came to blows",
      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "form": "come to blows",
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        "participle",
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
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      },
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      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "throw hands"
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  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1841, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 6, in The Deerslayer",
          "text": "I'll follow you, Floating Tom, into the Mingo camp, on such an arr'nd, and will strive to do my duty, should we come to blows; though, never having been tried in battle, I don't like to promise more than I may be able to perform.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1966 September 9, “LA Jumpy? Two Stars Near Blows”, in Milwaukee Sentinel, USA, retrieved 2010-08-29",
          "text": "The argument grew heated and teammates grabbed the pair to prevent them from coming to blows.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 March 24, Rania Abouzeid, “Arab-Kurd Tensions Could Threaten Iraq's Peace”, in Time",
          "text": "Iraqi security forces and peshmerga almost came to blows in the disputed area of Khanaqin, in Diyala province, after Iraqi troops tried to enter the mixed town.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To fight; to initiate physical conflict, especially subsequent to escalating tension or antagonism."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "fight",
          "fight"
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        [
          "initiate",
          "initiate"
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        ],
        [
          "escalating",
          "escalate"
        ],
        [
          "tension",
          "tension"
        ],
        [
          "antagonism",
          "antagonism"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To fight; to initiate physical conflict, especially subsequent to escalating tension or antagonism."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English impersonal verbs",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
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        {
          "text": "They exchanged insults, without it coming to blows.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To degrade into a fight or physical conflict (in reference to an argument or to a situation of tension or antagonism)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "fight",
          "fight"
        ],
        [
          "conflict",
          "conflict"
        ],
        [
          "tension",
          "tension"
        ],
        [
          "antagonism",
          "antagonism"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(impersonal) To degrade into a fight or physical conflict (in reference to an argument or to a situation of tension or antagonism)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "impersonal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-come to blows.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9e/En-au-come_to_blows.ogg/En-au-come_to_blows.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/En-au-come_to_blows.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "come to grips"
    },
    {
      "word": "duke it out"
    }
  ],
  "word": "come to blows"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.