stoush
/staʊʃ
/Australian /NZ informal
verb [with object]
Hit; fight with: get out of that car while I stoush you
noun
A brawl or other fight: figurative he is prepared to take risks, even a stoush with the Left if necessary...
- What's the most bizarre stoush or fight that you've come across in your years of watching these kinds of conflicts?
- It's been a year of predictable stoushes and controversies that seem to have come out of nowhere.
- The stoush between the timber industry, the conservation movement and governments, which went on for decades, was supposed to be all sorted out by now.
Origin
Late 19th century: of unknown origin.