bicker1
- to engage in petulant or peevish argument; wrangle: The two were always bickering.
- to run rapidly; move quickly; rush; hurry: a stream bickering down the valley.
- to flicker; glitter: The sun bickered through the trees.
- an angry, petty dispute or quarrel; contention.
Origin of bicker1
Synonyms
See more synonyms for bicker on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for bickering
Contemporary Examples
Joy Woodhouse calls in to tell her bickering boys Brad and Dallas to “get this out of your system” before Christmas.
Such admiration for the American system sounds strange in this era of gridlock and bickering.
The landings culminated years of debate, planning, construction, bickering, invention, training, deception of the enemy and more.
Leaders are constantly issuing contradictory orders and security commanders are bickering.
There are many loose ends surrounding the crime and the bickering, even though somewhat abated, will undoubtedly flare again.
Brunello’s King Lear: Gianfranco Soldera Reflects on the Attack on His WineAlice Feiring
December 8, 2013
Historical Examples
What use of logic, where there was no bickering about the double-meaning words?
The Praise of FollyDesiderius Erasmus
And there were the dogs, ever squabbling and bickering, bursting into uproars and creating confusions.
White FangJack London
As it was, the Philosophers contented themselves with bickering.
Tom, Dick and HarryTalbot Baines Reed
The bickering and rivalries must have been part of the camouflage.
A Slave is a SlaveHenry Beam Piper
I am tired of war, tired of bickering, tired of watching and being watched.
Long Live the KingMary Roberts Rinehart
bicker
- to argue over petty matters; squabble
- poetic
- (esp of a stream) to run quickly
- to flicker; glitter
- a petty squabble
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for bickering
n.
c.1300, "a skirmish," from bicker (v.). Meaning "a verbal wrangle" is from 1570s.
adj.
1808 in the sense of "contentious," present participle adjective from bicker (v.). Earlier it was used to mean "flashing, quivering" (1660s).
bicker
v.
early 14c., bikere, "to skirmish, fight," perhaps from Middle Dutch bicken "to slash, stab, attack," + -er, Middle English frequentative suffix. Meaning "to quarrel" is from mid-15c. Related: Bickered; bickering.
bicker
n.
c.1300, skirmish, battle; from the same source as bicker (v.). In modern use, often to describe the sound of a flight of an arrow or other repeated, loud, rapid sounds, in which sense it is perhaps at least partly echoic.