MEANING
1. To struggle or fight briefly in a confused, close physical encounter.
2. To move with a shuffling or scraping motion.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- scuffle in a doorway
- a brief scuffle
On the page
They scuffled in the doorway until the lamp fell.
He heard the two figures scuffle behind the partition.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- scuffle
- Past tense
- scuffled
- Past participle
- scuffled
- Present participle
- scuffling
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- scuffle
- Present continuous
- am/is/are scuffling
- Present perfect
- have/has scuffled
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been scuffling
- Past
- scuffled
- Past continuous
- was/were scuffling
- Past perfect
- had scuffled
- Past perfect continuous
- had been scuffling
- Future
- will scuffle
- Future continuous
- will be scuffling
- Future perfect
- will have scuffled
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been scuffling
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: horror. Forms: scuffle; scuffles; scuffled; scuffled; scuffling Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Third-person singular: scuffles.
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