come to blows

Verb

come to blows (third-person singular simple present comes to blows, present participle coming to blows, simple past came to blows, past participle come to blows)

1. (idiomatic) To fight; to initiate physical conflict, especially subsequent to escalating tension or antagonism.
   • I'll follow you, Floating Tom, into the Mingo camp, on such an arr'nd, and will strive to do my duty, should we come to blows; though, never having been tried in battle, I don't like to promise more than I may be able to perform.1841, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 6, in The Deerslayer
   • [T]here is a variety of drunkenness. . . . Some stagger about in each other's arms, whispering maudlin words—others start quarrels upon the slightest pretext, and come to blows and have to be pulled apart.1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter I, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC
2. (impersonal) To degrade into a fight or physical conflict (in reference to an argument or to a situation of tension or antagonism).
   • They exchanged insults, without it coming to blows.