An affray is a noisy, violent fight in a public place — a street, a station, the door of a pub — where other people can see it and often feel frightened by it. In Britain especially, affray is also a law word: the police can charge someone with affray even if nobody is badly hurt, because the fight itself scared the public. In everyday talk the word already feels a little old; most people would just say a fight, a brawl, or a punch-up. You will still hear affray on the news and in court reports. Though actually, the root is about fear, not about who threw the first punch. It came into English from French words meaning to terrify or to take the peace away (French still has effrayer, to frighten). That is why the law cares about the people watching, not only about the people hitting. A quiet argument at home is not an affray, however angry it is.

當眾鬥毆、聚眾打架（偏法律／新聞用語）