knock-down drag-out

knock-down drag-out

Lengthy, intense, and contentious. Although the phrase uses terms related to a physical fight, it usually refers to non-physical quarrels, or athletic contests, but not actual violence. This meeting is shaping up to be a knock-down drag-out battle between the two rival executives, who have each been trying to recruit allies. We knew from the beginning that this was going to be a knock-down drag-out game, and it hasn't disappointed, with both sides relentlessly trying to gain an advantage.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • a knock-down, drag-out fight
  • knock-down, drag-out fight
  • physical
  • get physical
  • a cheap shot
  • cheap shot
  • rough someone up
  • rough up
  • scalp
  • be out for/after (one's) scalp
References in periodicals archive
Shane Scully and his son Chooch begin this adventure with a motorcycle ride through the hills of Malibu with off-duty Los Angeles County sheriffs (Iron Pigs) and a knock-down drag-out with Hells Angels types.
Vertical Coffin
"I ant not really worried about schism in the church in the United States," she says, adding that the Episcopal Church "is a communion with such cultural diversity and such diversity within its own beliefs that it would be shocking if we did not have these knock-down drag-out fights about things.
Split decision: antigay Anglicans are threatening a schism in response to Robinson's consecration--but just how likely is it that the centuries-old church will break apart?
'Sure we have those knock-down drag-outs once in a while.
Typecast Jen freed by black comedy; Jennifer Aniston proves she can do more than play a dippy blonde, says Robin Walker