Word.ws English Dictionary

no holds barred

no holds barred adjective: without restrictions on holds or what opponents may do.

Adjective

no holds barred (not comparable)

  1. Without restrictions on holds or what opponents may do.
    • a no holds barred match
  2. (figuratively) Having absolutely no limits or restrictions as far as the levels and nature of one's hostilities and offense; taking to an especially ruthless or vicious manner.
    • Near-synonyms: unrestrained, unrestricted, unreserved, unconstrained, cutthroat
    • a no holds barred debating style that quickly transformed into cheap shots and bickering

Synonyms of no holds barred

Forms of no holds barred

alternative formno-holds-barred

Questions about no holds barred

What does no holds barred mean?
No holds barred means without restrictions on holds or what opponents may do.
What part of speech is no holds barred?
No holds barred is an adjective.

Words near no holds barred in the dictionary

  1. no harm done
  2. no harm, no foul
  3. no harm, no fowl
  4. no hat, no play
  5. no hell
  6. no holds barred
  7. no holes barred
  8. no homo
  9. no horse in that race
  10. no horse in this race
  11. no horse run

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: no holds barred (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-no holds barred.ogg.

Cite this entry: “no holds barred.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/no_holds_barred. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.