stoush en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
- /staʊʃ/
Etymology
Possibly from stash. Australian from 1893; Boer War military slang. Also may be derived from stushie or stooshie, a Scottish term for a commotion, rumpus, or row.
Meanings
-
(Australia, New-Zealand, informal) A fight, an argument.
Now Henry knows dead cert he′s in for a stoush, but Snake-hips says he should go with him, and out on Nymagee-street Henry Lawson refuses a twenty-pound note, and the two men shake and Henry accepts the next billiards game, doubles with Snake-hips (who plays even worse than Henry), the Minister for Public Instruction, and the Austrian chappie.
2006, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, page 200:She and Anna used to reproduce Veronica′s stoushes with Pat, conducted with gusto over the fence but never brought into the confining space of either house where they might smoulder and flare.
2004, Jay Verney, Percussion, University of Queensland Press, page 151:1996, Elizabeth Knox, Glamour and the Sea, Victoria University Press, New Zealand, page 166, Barry explained that his friend wasn′t drunk, he′d been in a stoush, had a ding on his head and was covered in money.
2008, Anna Haebich, Spinning the Dream: Assimilation in Australia 1950-1970, Fremantle Press, page 63, Melbourne almost lost the event when union go-slow tactics and a stoush over federal and state funding responsibilities seriously delayed work on the construction of the Olympic Stadium and Village.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| stoushes | Number=Plur | lexicographic |