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Three Ciuell brawles bred of an airie word, / By the old Capulet and Mountague, / Haue thrice diſturbd the quiet of our ſtreets.
1874 December 18, John M. Shirley, state reporter, “State v. Rollins”, in Reports of Cases in the Superior Court of Judicature of New Hampshire, volume LV, Concord, N.H.: Published by Josiah B. Sanborn, published 1876, →OCLC, page 102:
The complaint charged that the defendants, on, etc., at, etc., "in a certain public place, to wit, in a certain school-house in which a singing-school was then and there being held, did make a great brawl and tumult, and stamped their feet on the floor, hissed, used loud and saucy language, and were guilty of rude, indecent, and disorderly conduct."
It has been reported that an entertainment took place not long ago in a certain "hot spot" in New York City, and it has been charged that members of the Federal Communications Commission were present; that they got into a drunken brawl; and in the brawl some woman was hurt, her arm twisted.
Theſe are the deep and profound Myſteries of Artificial Logick, invented with ſo much care by theſe fallacious Doctors, [...] Theſe are the Nets, and theſe are the Hounds with which they hunt the Truth of all things, whether natural, as in Phyſicks; or ſupernatural, as in Metaphyſicks: but according to the Proverb of Clodius and Varro, can never overtake, by reaſon of their bawling and brawling one with another.
1716, Humphrey Prideaux, “Book VI”, in The Old and New Testament Connected, in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations, from the Declension of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, to the Time of Christ, part I, volume II, Edinburgh: Printed by D. Schaw & Co.,, published 1799, →OCLC, page 417:
As long as they [Xanthippe and Myrto, Socrates' wives] diſagreed, they were continually ſcolding, brawling, or fighting, with each other; and whenever they agreed, they both joined in brawling [verb sense 2] at him, and often fell on him with their fiſts as well as with their tongues, and beat him ſoundly.
1763, John Henderson, “Sect. XVI. Soliloquy on the Unerring Motions of the Spirit.”, in James Thomson, editor, Divine Meditations and Contemplations, in Prose and Verse, on Some of the Most Important and Interesting Doctrines of Christianity., Glasgow: Printed for James Thomson,, and sold by him, and by J. Trail, W. Gray, and J. Wood,; and by R. Smith, jun., →OCLC, page 305:
[U]pon every trifle, the vitiated faculties of thy ſoul are inflamed with immoderate and moſt irregular paſſion, ſo that thou often brawleſt, and art made thereby to roar like a wild bull caught in a thicket: [...]
One who rides at all hazards of limb and life in the chase of a fox, will prefer to ride recklessly at most times. So it was with these gentlemen. He was the greatest patriot, in their eyes, who brawled the loudest, and who cared the least for decency.
c.1560, Thomas Ingelend, A Pretie and Mery New Enterlude, Called The Disobedient Child, imprinted at London: y Thomas Colwell, →OCLC; republished as John S. Farmer, editor, The Disobedient Child (The Tudor Facsimile Texts; 42), London, Edinburgh: Issued for subscribers by T. C. & E. C. Jack,, 1908, →OCLC:
She [the son's wife] is one that is euermore full of ſtryfe / And of all Scolders beareth the Bell. / When ſhe ſpeaketh beſt, ſhe brawleth her tonge / When ſhe is ſtyll ſhe fyghteth apace: / She is an olde Witch thoughe ſhe be yonge, / No mirth with her, no ioye or ſolace.
[I]f a king will not remain at home and slay his own game, methinks he should not brawl too loud if he finds it killed to his hand.
1862 April, “The Bicentenary Commemoration of 1662”, in The Ecclesiastic and Theologian, volume XXIV, London: Joseph Masters,; Oxford, Oxfordshire: J. H. and James Parker; A. R. Mowbray; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Hall and Son; Derby, Derbyshire: J. and C. Mozley, →OCLC, page 239:
He [one Samuel Tuke] blasphemeth God's Holy Word, preacheth sedition and rebellion, telleth in the pulpit many foolish lies and ridiculous tales, brawleth against the reverend and learned ministers of the country, and raileth upon the worshipful gentry; [...]
To day my Lord of Amiens, and my ſelfe, / Did ſteale behinde him as he lay along / Vnder an oake, whoſe anticke roote peepes out / Vpon the brooke that brawles along this wood, [...]
1793, W[illiam] Wordsworth, An Evening Walk. An Epistle; in Verse., London: Printed for J Johnson,, →OCLC; republished as “The Female Beggar. From Wordsworth’s Evening Walk.”, in The Edinburgh Magazine, or Literary Miscellany, volume III (New Series), Edinburgh: Printed for James Symington and sold in London by H. Murray, and W. Boag, May 1794, →OCLC, page 387, column 1:
―When low-hung clouds each ſtar of ſummer hide, / And fireleſs are the valleys far and wide, / Where the brook brawls along the painful road, / Dark with bat haunted aſhes ſtretching broad, [...]
Boy. Maiſter, will you win your loue with a french braule? / Brag[gart]. How meaneſt thou? brawling in French. / Boy. No my complet Maiſter, but to Iigge off a tune at the tongues ende, canarie to it with your feete, humour it with turning vp your eylids, ſigh a note and ſing a note ſomtime through the throate, if you ſwallowed loue with ſinging loue [...]