tiff
Americannoun
-
a slight or petty quarrel.
- Synonyms:
- difference, misunderstanding, scrap, spat
-
a slight fit of annoyance, bad mood, or the like.
verb (used without object)
-
to have a petty quarrel.
-
to be in a tiff.
noun
-
a petty quarrel
-
a fit of ill humour
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
tiffsimple
-
tiffssimple
-
have tiffedperfect
-
has tiffedperfect
-
am tiffingprogressive
-
are tiffingprogressive
-
is tiffingprogressive
-
have been tiffingperfect progressive
-
has been tiffingperfect progressive
Past
-
tiffedsimple
-
had tiffedperfect
-
was tiffingprogressive
-
were tiffingprogressive
-
had been tiffingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tiff
First recorded in 1720–30; origin uncertain
Explanation
A tiff is a minor, relatively unimportant argument or fight. A tiff with your brother might start over the subject of whose turn it is to take out the trash. It's no fun to have a tiff with someone, but it's usually resolved or forgotten easily. When you have a tiff with a friend, it's inevitably a squabble over some silly topic, and if you bicker with your boyfriend, you can call it a "lovers' tiff." In the 1700s, a tiff was an "outburst of temper," from an unknown source. Some word experts suggest the word echoes the sound of a "puff of air or gas."
Vocabulary lists containing tiff
The Catcher in the Rye
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Never Let Me Go
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Peter Pan
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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.
See Examples For:
Perhaps most amusing is Mr. Booker’s tiff with Conan O’Brien, who made a joke about the city of Newark.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
The Australian government has denied the timing of the decision was related to the trade tiff, saying a decade-long department review found the US had improved beef safety measures.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2025
The women get into a small tiff, reminiscent of moments in “Sex and the City” when Carrie felt more understood by her best friend than she wanted to admit.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2025
Back in 2019, Trump’s call caused a brief diplomatic tiff with Denmark, under whose sovereignty the vast island falls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2024
Biggest of all was the tiff in Schmidt’s office.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
She said this attitude can elevate minor tiffs on social media into real life fights on campus.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 29, 2023
The regular tiffs between Mr. Sunak’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, and European leaders like President Emmanuel Macron of France played better in England than they did in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
From New York Times ● Feb. 17, 2023
Teigen is actively trying to avoid these exact kinds of social media tiffs anyway after being the subject of controversy this summer amid allegations of cyberbullying.
From Fox News ● Sep. 30, 2021
Many had started as tiffs on social media or other disputes that once would have been settled with words.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2021
We never laid a hand on each other again, and even though we’d get into plenty of verbal clashes, our tiffs tended to end the way our fistfight had, with us cracking up.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
When the lovers tiffed, the corpses looked "woebegone and reproachful."
From Time Magazine Archive
Recently he has tiffed with his superior, Secretary Harold Ickes.
From Time Magazine Archive
Last week the two tiffed on the bench.
From Time Magazine Archive
But Lady Bayrose got tiffed at me, and at Aden shifted to a Cape boat.
From Out of the Primitive by Bennet, Robert Ames
And if he got tiffed he would refuse to do a thing.
From The Corner House Girls Growing Up What Happened First, What Came Next. And How It Ended by Hill, Grace Brooks
"Clint likes a director he gets along with, which makes a lot of sense to me--especially now," recalled Reynolds, his remark referring to his recent tiffing with director Dick Richards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2018
The post was wildly inaccurate, but it did portend a contentious subplot to USC’s opening game against Alabama: the schools and their marching bands are tiffing over “Tusk,” the top-10 Fleetwood Mac hit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2016
They are still flirting and tiffing in character.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 13, 2013
On the day of the premiere, King George III, who was sponsoring a rival theater and tiffing with the Prince, closed up the Orfeo theater with troops.
From Time Magazine Archive
At one part of their journey they took their "tiffing," and after this they had to jump across a ditch, which the young officers cleared, but the major "jumped short."
From Second Edition of A Discovery Concerning Ghosts With a Rap at the "Spirit-Rappers" by Cruikshank, George
Definitions 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.
