bicker
Plural: bickers
Noun
- a quarrel about petty points
- A skirmish; an encounter.
- A fight with stones between two parties of boys.
- A wrangle; also, a noise, as in angry contention.
- The process by which selective eating clubs at Princeton University choose new members.
- A wooden drinking-cup or other dish.
Verb
Verb Forms: bickered, bickering, bickers
- To argue about petty and trivial matters.
- argue over petty things
- To quarrel in a tiresome, insulting manner.
- To brawl or move tremulously, quiver, shimmer (of a water stream, light, flame, etc.)
- To patter.
- To skirmish; to exchange blows; to fight.
Examples
- They bickered about dinner every evening.
- We always bicker over whether QI is a valid word without a U.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English bikeren (“to attack”), from Middle Dutch bicken (“to stab, thrust, attack”) + -er (frequentative suffix), from Proto-Germanic *bikjaną (compare Old English becca (“pickax”), Dutch bikken (“to hack”), German picken (“to peck, pick at”), Old Norse bikkja (“to plunge into water”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to smash, break”). Compare also German Low German bickern (“to nibble, gnaw”).
Synonyms
bickering, brabble, fuss, niggle, pettifog, pettifoggery, quibble, spat, squabble, tiff, wrangle
Scrabble Score: 14
bicker: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordbicker: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
bicker: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary