Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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noun
A catty squabble.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, humorous, idiomatic, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Competitors on a sporting field (often in a rugby game) getting into a fight; appearing threatening but not really causing any damage.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: New-Zealand, informal, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
First appears in the UK in the 1980s. A jocular derivation from pistols at dawn, replacing pistols with handbags, referring to women hitting each other with handbags during a catfight. The phrase originated in football. It may have been influenced by the phrase handbagging meaning a verbal dressing-down, in reference to the then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; and by the Monty Python sketch The Batley Townswomen's Guild Presents the Battle of Pearl Harbor (season 1, episode 11. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes to the Bathroom, December 1969), in which the actors flail at each other with handbags in a muddy field.
