Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A confused struggle or fight at close quarters. synonym: brawl.
- noun A confused tumultuous mingling, as of a crowd.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Hand-to-hand
combat ;mano a mano . - noun A
naval orarmor battle at an abnormally closerange , extending even to disorganizedcrowds of people or traffic jams, using no ammunition. - noun A noisy or heated
fight ,argument orscrap - verb video games, slang to physically hit, as opposed to
shooting orblowing up .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I'm finally getting around to leveling/playing a warlock myself (just hit 77 yesterday) and I must say turning into a demon and joining my axe wielding friend in melee is ever so much fun.
"The lines of uncles dwindled, and the pirate stories stopped." greygirlbeast 2010
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I'm finally getting around to leveling/playing a warlock myself (just hit 77 yesterday) and I must say turning into a demon and joining my axe wielding friend in melee is ever so much fun.
"The lines of uncles dwindled, and the pirate stories stopped." greygirlbeast 2010
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We did at last contrive to do so; we invented what we call the melee, and our revised rules in the event of a melee will be found set out upon a later page.
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Melee: Pistols may be used as saps and muskets as clubs in melee combat, but they are reasonably fragile and whenever you roll a natural 1 on the attack roll the weapon is broken.
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Gears of War 2 seems to feature more giant enemies specializing in melee, like the Butcher who wields a giant machete.
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Gahz'rilla gave us a run for our money, because of his habit of throwing the people who are in melee with him high up into the air and then taking out his rage on the mage or the priest.
Damanique's early morning meme nathreee 2008
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The first thing we learned is that the head is so heavy (being chunkier than a battle-axe) that the thing is pretty useless in melee — it is just too unwieldy.
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But by the time the melee is in full effect, everyone and everything on the screen is computer-generated - including the perspective of the camera itself, steering at 2,000 miles per hour and screaming through arcs that would tear any physical camera apart.
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Unfortunately, there’s not much I can do at this point, as I am locked in melee with several other Liburnians and depeleted in crew.
Galley Warfare: Roman Seas at Fall In! AAR on Repple Depple « Third Point of Singularity 2009
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About 15 minutes later, two boys, ages 14 and 15, who were leaving a McDonald's restaurant, also in the 200 block of South State, encountered what police described as a melee -- perhaps the same one the other boy walked into -- and tried to get away, said Police Officer Laura Kubiak.
Three Teens STABBED Near Taste Of Chicago, One Man Tased By Police 2010
sonofgroucho commented on the word melee
Fight! Fight! Fight!
November 23, 2007
meleeman commented on the word melee
how do you guys pronounce it?
January 8, 2008
breadheadted commented on the word melee
I pronounce it like may-lay but I know a lot of people who pronounce it mee-lee which just sounds plain wrong.
January 8, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word melee
All my stage-combat buddies say it the way I do: MEH-lay (or MAY-lay, if you have trouble imagining that).
Edit: Isn't it actually melée? (Not to be too much of a fussbudget.)
January 8, 2008
reesetee commented on the word melee
Why am I not surprised that you have stage-combat buddies, chained_bear?
January 8, 2008
meleeman commented on the word melee
but which is more correct? Oddly, I think the French pronounciation emphasizes both syllables, which makes it sound like there is more emphasis on the second syllable (to our American ears).
January 8, 2008
reesetee commented on the word melee
I don't think it's a question of degree of correctness. It almost depends on which dictionary you're checking. Apparently several pronunciations are correct (according to several dictionaries).
C_b: I've also seen it as mêlée in some references.
January 8, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word melee
Any words that have accents and little pointy hats and other stuff are bound to lose those in the move to more common usage in English. We don't like us no pointy-hatted Franche words.
I can't say which is "more" or "less" correct. I was just wondering if anyone had listed the version with the accent on it--which I will now call a fling because that's the noise it makes in my brain when I write one--and then discovered that yeah, I listed it. *sheepish*
January 8, 2008
reesetee commented on the word melee
Is that an acute fling or a grave fling? ;->
January 8, 2008
mollusque commented on the word melee
Merriam Webster's Third International gives five pronunciations, so appropriately it's a free-for-all. Just don't pronounced it Millay, as in Edna St. Vincent.
January 8, 2008
kewpid commented on the word melee
Some say mee-LEE, I say meh-LAY.
January 8, 2008
reesetee commented on the word melee
Let's call the whole thing off. ;->
January 8, 2008
seanahan commented on the word melee
This is one of those words that I don't know the preferred pronunciation so I will alternate between the two most common, unknowingly.
January 9, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word melee
The others were shocked at this shameful disgrace
At the end of an honoured career
He paused in the silence to pull down his tie
And observe the melee.
(Take your carriage clock and shove it, by Belle and Sebastian)
November 13, 2008
telruen commented on the word melee
Melee
Additional usage:
Noun, Broadly Hand-to-hand combat (rare)
Adjective of or related to hand-to-hand combat
Examples sentences:
"I've been playing Arcanum a lot, my main character is a level 35 melee fighter technologist."
"Sulik from Fallout 2 is great at melee."
"I use many different melee weapons, but my favorite has to be the Super Sledgehammer."
"Jaheira from Baldur's Gate is a pretty decent melee character who can effectively facilitate her performance in hand-to-hand combat with her druid spells."
Note:
This usage has been around for more than 2 decades, usually in RPG video games, tabletop war games, some card games and as part of discussions related to these.
Many gamers (including ex-gamers) are familiar with this usage and would use the word "melee" this way.
October 23, 2009