dukes
Peers below princes
Dukes is slang for fists, especially when raised and ready to fight.
The expression put up your dukes is a challenge to engage in a fistfight.
This sense likely derives from Cockney rhyming slang, where "Duke of Yorks" meant forks, which was itself slang for fingers or hands.
Outside of this idiom, dukes simply refers to multiple noblemen ranking just below princes.
He put up his dukes and told the bully to back off.
Finger-to-hand joints
- punchStrike with fist
- jabQuick, straight blow
- hookCurved catching device
- uppercutAscending boxing strike
haymaker · knockout · boxing · sparring · gloves · brawl · fisticuffs · pugilist
Gripping limbs' extremities
knuckles
Finger-to-hand joints
uppercut · haymaker · knockout · boxing · sparring · gloves · brawl · fisticuffs · pugilist · bare-knuckle
hands
Gripping limbs' extremities
nobility
Titled ruling class
count · marquess · earl · viscount · lord · manor · estate · title · lineage · ancestry
- authorityleaders, ruler, rulers, monarch, bosses
- British Classupper class, middle class, lower class, working class, aristocrats
- Holy Roman EmpireHoly Roman Empire, emperors, electors, prince-electors, Charlemagne
- Italian NobilityMedici, Borgia, Gonzaga, Savoy, counts
- landownerslandlords, farmer, rancher, freeholders, homesteader
- medieval governancefeudal hierarchy, vassalage, lordship, commons, royal authority
dukescommoners
Ordinary citizens, untitled
peasants · serfs · the common people · plebeians · the masses
dukessurrender
Cease resistance, yield
palms up · white flag · submission · cowering · backing down
dukespaupers
Extremely impoverished people
beggars · the poor · the masses · working class · proletariat
- Duke of EdinburghRoyal title, Scottish peerage
- duke it outEngage in physical combat
- duked it outFought to settle dispute
- duking it outFighting to resolve conflict
- Daisy DukesUltra-short denim shorts
- put up one's dukesAssume boxing posture