mêlée

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun That part of the game of halma in which the pieces of the two players occupy the same part of the board.
• noun A confused conflict, as a hand-to-hand fight among a number of persons; especially, in modern books, a tourney in which many combatants (not two only) take part.
• noun Synonyms Affray, Brawl, etc. See quarrel, n.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A fight in which the combatants are mingled in one confused mass; a hand to hand conflict; an affray.
• noun A cavalry exercise in which two groups of riders try to cut paper plumes off the helmets of their opponents, the contest continuing until no member of one group retains his plume; -- sometimes called Balaklava mêlée.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Alternative spelling of melee.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a noisy riotous fight