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Bicker vs Argue - What's the difference?

bicker | argue |

As verbs the difference between bicker and argue

is that bicker is to quarrel in a tiresome, insulting manner while argue is to prove.

As a noun bicker

is a skirmish; an encounter.

bicker

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) bikeren ‘to attack’, from (etyl) bicken ‘to stab, attack’ (modern bikken ‘to hack’), from (etyl) ‘to smash, break’.

Verb

(en verb)
  • To quarrel in a tiresome, insulting manner.
  • They bickered about dinner every evening.
  • * Barrow
  • petty things about which men cark and bicker
  • To move tremulously, quiver, shimmer (of a water stream, of a flame)
  • *XIX cent,
  • I come from haunts of coot and hern, / I make a sudden sally, / And sparkle out among the fern, / To bicker down a valley.
  • * Thomson
  • They [streamlets] bickered through the sunny shade.
  • To skirmish; to exchange blows; to fight.
  • * Holland
  • Two eagles had a conflict, and bickered together.
    Derived terms
    *bickerer
    Synonyms
    * wrangle * See also

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A skirmish; an encounter.
  • (Scotland, obsolete) A fight with stones between two parties of boys.
  • (Jamieson)
  • A wrangle; also, a noise, as in angry contention.
  • Etymology 2

    See beaker.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small wooden vessel made of staves and hoops, like a tub.
  • (Webster 1913)

    argue

    English

    Verb

    (argu)
  • (obsolete) To prove.
  • To shows grounds for concluding ((that)); to indicate, imply.
  • * 1910 , , "The Soul of Laploshka", Reginald in Russia :
  • To have killed Laploshka was one thing; to have kept his beloved money would have argued a callousness of feeling of which I was not capable.
  • To debate, disagree or discuss opposing or differing viewpoints.
  • He also argued for stronger methods to be used against China.
    He argued as follows: America should stop Lend-Lease convoying, because it needs to fortify its own Army with the supplies.
    The two boys argued because of disagreement about the science project.
  • To have an argument, a quarrel.
  • To present (a viewpoint or an argument therefor).
  • He argued his point.
    He argued that America should stop Lend-Lease convoying because it needed to fortify its own Army with the supplies.

    Derived terms

    * argie-bargie * argle-bargle * arguable * argue the toss * arguer * argy-bargy

    Anagrams

    * English reporting verbs ----