a fight; a brawl; fighting. Possibly a variant of Scottish dialect stashie (a commotion, disturbance, quarrel) which was recorded in C19 Aberdeen as 'stash' without the '-ie' suffix. During both World Wars used by servicemen to refer to the war, with a touch of jocular or ironic bravado AUSTRALIA, 1893.► deal out a stoushto assault with violence AUSTRALIA, 1900

to punch, to hit; to struggle, to battle AUSTRALIA, 1893