Word.ws English Dictionary

handbags at dawn

handbags at dawn noun: a catty squabble.

Noun

handbags at dawn (uncountable)

  1. (UK, humorous, idiomatic) A catty squabble.
  2. (New Zealand, informal) Competitors on a sporting field (often in a rugby game) getting into a fight; appearing threatening but not really causing any damage.

Origin of handbags at dawn

First appears in the UK in the 1980s. A jocular derivation from pistols at dawn, replacing pistols with handbags, referring to women hitting each other with handbags during a catfight. The phrase originated in football. It may have been influenced by the phrase handbagging meaning a verbal dressing-down, in reference to the then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; and by the Monty Python sketch The Batley Townswomen's Guild Presents the Battle of Pearl Harbor (season 1, episode 11. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes to the Bathroom, December 1969), in which the actors flail at each other with handbags in a muddy field.

Words formed from handbags at dawn

Questions about handbags at dawn

What does handbags at dawn mean?
Handbags at dawn means a catty squabble.
What part of speech is handbags at dawn?
Handbags at dawn is a noun.

Words near handbags at dawn in the dictionary

  1. handbagging
  2. handbaggings
  3. handbaggy
  4. handbagless
  5. handbags
  6. handbags at dawn
  7. handbags at ten paces
  8. handbagsful
  9. handbake
  10. handbalance
  11. handbalancer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: handbags at dawn (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-handbags at dawn.ogg.

Cite this entry: “handbags at dawn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/handbags_at_dawn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.