Borrowed from French mêlée, from Old French meslee, feminine past participle of mesler (“to mix”), derived from Latin misceō (“mix”). Doublet of medley.
Meanings
(not-comparable) Of a weapon: used in close-range combat, e.g. a sword. Compare with ranged.
A melee weapon is used to attack a target within 5 feet of you, whereas a ranged weapon is used to attack a target at a distance. 2018, Wizards of the Coast, Basic Rules for Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e):
(not-comparable) Of a character, using melee weapons.
Borrowed from French mêlée, from Old French meslee, feminine past participle of mesler (“to mix”), derived from Latin misceō (“mix”). Doublet of medley.
Meanings
(countable, especially, uncountable) A battle fought at close range, (especially) one not involving ranged weapons; hand-to-hand combat; brawling.
Honestly, a lot of what this episode did right had more to do with the scenes that surrounded the enormous melee than those hyper-edited clashes of swords. 2019 April 28, Alex McLevy, “Game Of Thrones Suffers the Fog of War in the Battle against the Dead (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 31 May 2021:
The attack also afforded Helena to a front-seat view of literal air-to-air melee combat, as one Wildcat pilot of the Cactus Air Force, who was swooping in to help break up the attack, found himself out of machine-gun ammo; instead, he dropped his landing gear, positioned himself above the nearest bomber, and begun beating it to death, in midair, using his landing gear as clubs. After a bit of evasive action that the fighter easily kept up with, the repeated slamming broke something important, and the bomber spiralled down into the sea. 2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 5:50 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from the original on 17 Oct 2022:
(countable, uncountable) A loud, confused or tumultuous fight, argument or scrap.
The ball did not appear to cross the line, a view supported by television replays as Blues captain John Terry also joined the melee, but referee Atkinson awarded the goal - to the obvious anger of Spurs and their management team. 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC:
Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver said Tuesday that the federal assault charges filed against her a day earlier related to a chaotic melee outside an Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention facility are “absurd.” 2025 May 20, Shania Shelton and Holmes Lybrand, “Democratic congresswoman says federal charges in ICE facility scuffle are ‘absurd’”, in CNN:
(countable, uncountable) Any confused, disorganised, disordered or chaotic situation.
Within this melee of intersections between English and Cantonese, the students, being themselves bilingually fluent, were able to navigate with perfect ease in communicative contexts where the provenance of a certain term or expression matters little. 2015, James Lambert, “Lexicography as a teaching tool: A Hong Kong case study”, in Lan Li, Jamie McKeown, Liming Liu, editors, Dictionaries and corpora: Innovations in reference science. Proceedings of ASIALEX 2015 Hong Kong, Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, page 147:
(countable, uncountable) Lively contention or debate, skirmish.
(countable, historical, uncountable) 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.
(countable, uncountable) Small cut and polished gemstones sold in lots.
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
melée
alternative, rare
lexicographic
melees
Number=Plur
lexicographic
mêlée
alternative
lexicographic
Translations (62)
sv närkamp (Hand-to-hand combat) · de Handgemenge (Hand-to-hand combat) · cmn 混擊 /混击 (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · cs potyčka (Hand-to-hand combat) · hu közelharc (Hand-to-hand combat) · cs vřava (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · ru стычка (lively contention or debate) · de Gezänk (lively contention or debate) · pl walka wręcz (Hand-to-hand combat) · bg меле́ (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · cs šarvátka (battle fought at close range) · de Prügelei (Hand-to-hand combat) · de Händel (Hand-to-hand combat) · sk potýčka (Hand-to-hand combat) · da sammenstød (battle fought at close range) · pt combate corpo-a-corpo (Hand-to-hand combat) · cs hádka (lively contention or debate) · da nærkamp (Hand-to-hand combat) · da håndgemæng (battle fought at close range) · ota پرخاش (Hand-to-hand combat) · ja 接近戦 (Hand-to-hand combat) · sv närstrid (Hand-to-hand combat) · izh käsikähäkkä (Hand-to-hand combat) · de Schlägerei (Hand-to-hand combat) · sk hádka (lively contention or debate) · fi lähitaistelu (Hand-to-hand combat) · de Tumult (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · ru рукопашная (Hand-to-hand combat) · de Streit (lively contention or debate) · tr yakın dövüş (Hand-to-hand combat) · ru схва́тка (Hand-to-hand combat) · cs potyčka (battle fought at close range) · sk potýčka (battle fought at close range) · de Hickhack (lively contention or debate) · hu verekedés (Hand-to-hand combat) · bg ръкопашен бой (Hand-to-hand combat) · cs mela (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · hu közelharc (battle fought at close range) · ro luptă corp la corp (Hand-to-hand combat) · sk šarvátka (battle fought at close range) · sh borba prsa o prsa (Hand-to-hand combat) · de Gewühl (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · de Rauferei (Hand-to-hand combat) · fi käsikähmä (Hand-to-hand combat) · ar شجار (Hand-to-hand combat) · de Rauferei (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · sk mela (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · sh borba prsa u prsa (battle fought at close range) · cmn 近战 (Hand-to-hand combat) · cs pranice (Hand-to-hand combat) · de Keilerei (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · de Getümmel (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · ru ближний бой (battle fought at close range) · hu kézitusa (Hand-to-hand combat) · de Nahkampf (Hand-to-hand combat) · ru перепа́лка (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · de Nahkampf (battle fought at close range) · it combattimento corpo a corpo (Hand-to-hand combat) · cs rvačka (Hand-to-hand combat) · de Gedränge (noisy, confused or tumultuous fight, argument) · sk bitka (Hand-to-hand combat) · mi nonoketanga (Hand-to-hand combat)
Borrowed from French mêlée, from Old French meslee, feminine past participle of mesler (“to mix”), derived from Latin misceō (“mix”). Doublet of medley.
Meanings
(slang) To physically hit in close quarters, as opposed to shooting, blowing up, or other ranged means of damage. Often refers to the usage of a hand-to-hand weapon.