Meanings
- New ZealandinformaluncountableCompetitors on a sporting field (often in a rugby game) getting into a fight; appearing threatening but not really causing any damage.
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
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.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
handbags at dawn. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handbags%20at%20dawn
“handbags at dawn.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handbags%20at%20dawn. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “handbags at dawn,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handbags%20at%20dawn.
Source: handbags at dawn on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.