royal

Related to royal: royal family

a battle royal

1. A fight in which more than two participants are involved and the last person to survive is declared the winner. The men were eager to see who would be declared the wrestling champion at the end of the battle royal.
2. A heated argument. Things got pretty heated between the union and the school board at the meeting last night. It was quite the battle royal!
See also: battle, royal

a royal pain

Someone or something that is very irritating. "Royal" is used as an intensifier. Of course the client has more demands. Ugh, he is a royal pain. This project has turned into a royal pain—I doubt well get it done by the deadline.
See also: pain, royal

get the royal treatment

To receive extravagant treatment or elaborate attention and care. At our spa, we make sure all our customers get the royal treatment. By signing up with us, your website will get the royal treatment from our team of professional web developers!
See also: get, royal, treatment

give (someone) the royal treatment

To treat someone or something extravagantly; to give someone or something elaborate attention and care. At our spa, we give all of our customers the royal treatment. Give your website the royal treatment with one of our professional web development kits now!
See also: give, royal, treatment

right royal

1. Very fine, enjoyable, or excellent. Primarily heard in UK. I can't wait for Friday—we're going to have a right royal night out on the town. It meant a lot to me that my parents put out such a right royal welcome for me when I came home from university.
2. Absolute; utter; extreme. Primarily heard in UK. This course I started last month is a right royal pain in my arse. Well, this is a right royal mess you've found yourself in, eh Bob?
See also: right, royal

royal pain

Someone or something that causes a large or severe amount of frustration, annoyance, or aggravation. This new computer is proving to be a royal pain. It's been crashing at least once a day since I first started it up! These federal investigators have been royal pains. I know they have a job to do, but I wish they would just let us get on with our work.
See also: pain, royal

royal pain in the ass

rude slang Someone or something that causes a large or severe amount of frustration, annoyance, or aggravation. This new computer is proving to be a royal pain in the ass. It's been crashing at least once a day since I first started it up! These federal investigators have been royal pains in the ass. I know they have a job to do, but I wish they would just let us get on with our work.
See also: ass, pain, royal

royal road (to something)

A particularly smooth, easy, or trouble-free journey or development (to some status, position, or result). Each year, people flock to Hollywood hoping to find the royal road to fame and fortune. His family's wealth and status put him on the royal road to success from the moment he was born.
See also: road, royal

royal road to (something)

The easiest, most direct, or most effective way to reach or achieve something. The institution is the lone royal road to getting work as a filmmaker in this country, effectively creating a monopoly within the industry that they are free to exploit. If they can win their division, they will be on the royal road to the championship during the playoffs.
See also: road, royal

there is no royal road to learning

There is no means of learning something that is easier or requires less effort. I know you want to skip all of this boring theory stuff, but you won't get far with the interesting parts if you don't understand the necessary foundations. There is no royal road to learning, after all.
See also: learning, no, road, royal, there
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

a battle royal

a classic, hard-fought battle or argument. The meeting turned into a battle royal and everyone left angry.
See also: battle, royal

a royal pain

a great annoyance. This guy's a royal pain, but we have to put up with him because he's the boss. the royal treatment very good treatment; very good and thoughtful care of a person. I was well cared for. They gave me the royal treatment. I got the royal treatment when I stayed at that expensive hotel.
See also: pain, royal

There is no royal road to learning.

Prov. Learning things requires work. Sue: I don't see why we have to do homework every night. Why can't we just listen to the lectures? Nancy: There is no royal road to learning.
See also: learning, no, road, royal, there
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

battle royal

a fiercely contested fight or dispute.
1997 Fred Chappell Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You The boys told no one about the fight…it was a battle royal and went on from two o'clock in the afternoon until sundown.
See also: battle, royal

royal road to

a way of attaining or reaching something without trouble.
This expression alludes to a remark attributed to the Greek mathematician Euclid ( c .300 bc ). When the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy I asked whether geometry could not be made easier, Euclid is said to have replied: ‘There is no royal road to geometry’.
See also: road, royal
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

royal pain

n. someone or something irritating; a severe annoyance. Her questions were a royal pain, but I had to answer them as part of my job.
See also: pain, royal
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

the royal road

A way or method that presents no difficulties: the royal road to success.
See also: road, royal
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.

battle royal

A fierce battle or free-for-all. In the seventeenth century the term signified a cockfight in which more than two birds were engaged. They would fight until there was only one survivor. By the eighteenth century the expression was a metaphor for any general fight, including a battle of wits.
See also: battle, royal

the royal we

The first person plural used by a person with supreme authority, or, in modern times, sometimes to preserve anonymity. Supposedly, the first king to use we in this way was Richard I in the Charter to Winchester (1190). “We are not amused” is a rebuke often attributed to straitlaced Queen Victoria. In the twentieth century, magazines and newspapers frequently use the editorial we to express an opinion that may in fact be shared by no one but the writer. Lisa Alther expressed an opinion about that in her novel Kinflicks (1979): “She had learnt . . . that it was impossible to discuss issues civilly with a person who insisted on referring to himself as ‘we.’”
See also: royal, we
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • a battle royal
  • battle royal
  • an eager beaver
  • eager
  • eager beaver
  • eager-beaver
  • be spoiling for (something)
  • be spoiling for a fight, argument, etc.
  • gauntlet
  • have itchy fingers
References in classic literature
Orders had just been given to the royal guards and the Swiss guards, not only to stand firm, but to send out patrols to the streets of Saint Denis and Saint Martin, where the people thronged and where they were the most vociferous, when the mayor of Paris was announced at the Palais Royal.
Comminges, wounded by a stone which had struck him on the forehead, had left a picket in the street and returned to the Palais Royal, followed by a menacing crowd, to tell his story.
Twenty Years After
The royal palace of Tamaahmaah was a large house of two stories; the lower of stone, the upper of wood.
Tamaahmaah came on board of the ship in royal style, in his double pirogue.
Astoria or Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountain
"Chaka dreamed this also," I went on: "that one of you, the princes, held his royal spear."
"Chaka dreamed this also: that I, Mopo, your dog, who am not worthy to be mentioned with such names, came up and gave the royal salute, even the Bayete."
Nada The Lily
le Prince has charged me to convey this letter to your royal highness, and I am to wait for an answer to it."
Ten Years Later
Likewise the King called for Will Stutely and made him Chief of the Royal Archers.
Robin Hood
The reader will not be surprised, then, at the calmness with which the doctor received the applause that welcomed him in the Royal Society.
Five Weeks in a Balloon
The most eager factor in the search for Prince Richard was Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, whose affection for his royal nephew had always been so marked as to have been commented upon by the members of the King's household.
The Outlaw of Torn
His prisoner was the son of a mighty jeddak; he was the guest of Thuvan Dihn--until but now an honoured guest upon whom every royal dignity had been showered.
Thuvia Maid of Mars
And when, at the end of an hour, Van Horn passed Jerry into the sternsheets of the whaleboat and followed, he left on the beach a stunned and wondering royal black, who, more than ever before, was respectful of the dynamite-compounded white men who brought to him stick tobacco, calico, knives and hatchets, and inexorably extracted from such trade a profit.
Jerry of the Islands
You may be sure the royal children of Ev and their Queen mother were delighted at seeing again their beloved country; and when the towers of the palace of Ev came into view they could not forbear cheering at the sight.
Ozma of Oz
So when the courtier arrived with the royal message he was told to take back word to the King that his orders should be obeyed.
Yellow Fairy Book
Sylvie was just going to explain, very politely, that really they couldn't perform that ceremony, because their wigs wouldn't come off, when the door of the Royal Kennel opened, and an enormous Newfoundland Dog put his head out.
Sylvie and Bruno