bareknuckle

US: (bâr′nuk′əl)

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

bare•knuck•le  (bâr′nuk′əl), adj. 

1. Sport (of a prizefight, prizefighter, etc.) without boxing gloves;
   using the bare fists.
2. without conventional niceties;
   rough-and-tumble.

adv. 

3. Sport without boxing gloves.
4. in a rough-and-tumble manner.

Also, bare′knuck′led. 

• bare¹ + knuckle 1920–25

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

bare-knuckle adjective

1. without boxing gloves: a bare-knuckle fight
2. aggressive and without reservations: a bare-knuckle confrontation