fighting words

Idioms  

1. A statement bound to start a quarrel or fight. It is often expressed as them's fighting words, as in You say your father's smarter than mine? Them's fighting words. The ungrammatical use of them's for “those are” emphasizes the folksy tone of this colloquialism, first recorded in Ring Lardner's Gullible's Travels (1917).

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Example Sentences

I’ve even added some of Huntr/x’s songs to my resistance playlist titled, “Them’s Fighting Words.”

From Salon

These are fighting words, and we can safely assume that Jackson does not use them lightly.

From Slate

Employers resented Roosevelt’s pro-labor stance, as well as his fighting words attacking “economic royalists.”

From Slate

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has had some fighting words for Google, too.

From Seattle Times

In corporate-speak, those are fighting words about as barbed as they come: They insinuated that Altman had been lying.

From Los Angeles Times