MELEE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Melee

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/mˈeɪlˌeɪ/ Listen

noun

Melee n.

A fight in which the combatants are mingled in one confused mass; a hand to hand conflict; an affray.

A cavalry exercise in which two groups of riders try to cut paper plumes off the helmets of their opponents, the contest continuing until no member of one group retains his plume; sometimes called Balaklava mêlée.

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Etymology of 'Melee'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Melee" Quotes from Famous Books

... of Homoly Hill; and, hanging upon that, all manner of redoubts and batteries to the rightward and rearward:—but how it was done no pen can describe, nor any intellect in clear sequence understand. An enormous MELEE there: new Prussian battalions charging, and ever new, irrepressible by case-shot, as they successively get up; Marshal Browne too sending for new battalions at double-quick from his left, disputing stiffly every inch of his ground. Till at length (hour not given), a cannon-shot tore away ...

— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XVIII. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great--Seven-Years War Rises to a Height.--1757-1759. • Thomas Carlyle

... post. I never heard more furious shelling, and fear our loss was frightful, provided it was our assault on the enemy's lines. We could see the white smoke, from the observatory, floating along the horizon over the woods and down the river. The melee of sounds was terrific: heavy siege guns (from our steam-rams, probably) mingled with the incessant roar of field artillery. At 3 P.M. all was comparatively quiet, and we await intelligence of ...

— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones

... awful melee, the struggle to the death with that song above all the shouting and the shrieks... You who imagine you know La Marseillaise because you have heard it played at prize distributions must acknowledge your error. In order to know it you must have ...

— The Soul of the War • Philip Gibbs

... and unstrapping the blanket which had served as a saddle headed his mustang for the water-hole and gave him a slap. Then the hides and packs were slipped from the pack-train, and soon the pool became a kicking, splashing melee. Every cedar-tree circling the glade and every branch served as a peg for deer meat. Some of it was in the haunch, the bulk in dark dried strips. The Indians laid their weapons aside. Every sagebush and low stone held a blanket. A few of these blankets ...

— The Heritage of the Desert • Zane Grey

... melee, but while ostensibly trying to drag the dog away, delayed the few seconds it took for those slashing fangs ...

— Man of Many Minds • E. Everett Evans

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