A clamorous or tumultuous quarrel in a public place, to the disturbance of the public peace. In English law , specifically, a noisy quarrel or other uproarious conduct creating a disturbance in a church or churchyard. 4 Bl. Comm. 140; 4 Steph. Comm. 253. The popular meanings of the words “brawls” and “tumults” are substantially the same and identical. They are correlative terms, the one employed to express the meaning of the other, and are so defined by approved lexicographers. Legally, the.v mean the same kind of disturbance to the public peace, produced by the same class of agents, and can be well comprehended to define one and the same offense . State v. Perkins, 42 N. H. 404.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
