- present participle of bicker.
bickering
Americanadjective
-
arguing petulantly or peevishly; wrangling or quarreling.
To raise their daughter properly, the bickering pair must set aside their differences and work on their parenting skills.
-
flickering.
They deliberately hadn’t fixed the bickering light at the bistro, as it had become an iconic feature of the establishment.
-
Literary. rushing or making a rushing sound, as water.
The two flutes accompanied by piano sounded like two chirping birds chasing each other above a bickering stream.
noun
-
the act of engaging in petulant or peevish argument.
Why all this useless bickering over who's best or better?
-
the act of flickering.
If you’re bothered by the constant bickering of the malfunction light on your motorbike, do a thorough analysis of the wiring.
-
Literary. the act of rushing or of making a rushing sound, as water.
Over the roar of the falls and the ceaseless bickering of the rain, he heard another sound.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bickering
First recorded in 1275–1325; bicker 1 ( def. ) + -ing 2 ( def. ) for the adjective senses; bicker 1 ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. ) for the noun senses
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Her popular podcast My Therapist Ghosted Me is full of gossip, oversharing and comic bickering - music to the ears of the Traitors producers, no doubt.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
Its cast includes the bickering members of a Sri Lankan hotel cleaner’s family, insecure American freshmen, dead-end third-tier college professors and their highflying Ivy League counterparts and dispirited university functionaries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
So it becomes one more point of bickering.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
One way a court can handle rumors of interpersonal bickering is to stop behaving badly in public sessions.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2026
Worn out by the bickering, a surprising number of people eventually caved in.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
