bear-fightingn.
/ˈbɛːˌfʌɪtɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈbɛrˌfaɪdɪŋ/ 1. Rough, rowdy, or boisterous behaviour. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > unruliness > disorder or riot > [noun] > disorderly behaviour
misordera1513
ill rule1556
roaring1617
randan1640
bear-fighting1775
1775 Weekly Mag. (Edinb.) 27 July 139/2 To spread the wild fire of jangling animosity and bear-fighting through these lands.
1870 Fun 1 Jan. 166/1 All we have to say is, if this unrestrained bear-fighting is what Mr. Watkins and his friends consider ‘Self-Government’, it is not our idea of it.
1931 L. A. D. Leslie Wilderness Trails in Three Continents xiv. 142 There is..just good-natured jostling and joking, and ‘bear fighting’ becomes the order of the evening. It is very comical to see elderly gentlemen sometimes behaving like boisterous schoolboys.
2. The practice of setting bears to fight against each other, or other animals, as a form of entertainment. Cf. bear-baiting n. Now chiefly historical.The practice of bear-fighting is now illegal throughout the world.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > dissent > fighting > [noun] > between specific animals
dogfighting?a1500
dogfighta1656
bear-fighting1812
catfight1824
horse-fight1897
1812 Chester Chron. 14 Aug. The memory of all the reverend saints in the calendar is commemorated with the solemnity which plentiful libations of ale, bear baiting, bear fighting, and other such suitable exercises can inspire.
1975 Wilson (N. Carolina) Daily Times 23 Apr. 2/3 Reading back in the history of our state and days of frontiersmen, bearfighting was considered a sport.
2004 Rangelands 26 41/2 The early practices of killing predators such as cougars, the killing of bison for sport and ceremonial reasons,..and bear fighting,..today are seen as cruel.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2020; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1775