What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Bicker vs Spar - What's the difference?

bicker | spar | Synonyms |

As verbs the difference between bicker and spar

is that bicker is to quarrel in a tiresome, insulting manner while spar is to bolt, bar.

As nouns the difference between bicker and spar

is that bicker is a skirmish; an encounter while spar is a rafter of a roof.

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)

    External links

    * *

    spar

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . Perhaps also compare (l), (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A rafter of a roof.
  • A thick pole or piece of wood.
  • (obsolete) A bar of wood used to fasten a door.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , V.11:
    • The Prince staid not his aunswere to devize, / But, opening streight the Sparre , forth to him came […].
  • (nautical) A general term denoting any linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff.
  • (aeronautics) A beam-like structural member that supports ribs in an aircraft wing or other airfoil.
    • Derived terms
    * spar buoy * spar deck * spar torpedo

    Verb

  • (obsolete, or, dialectal) to bolt, bar.
  • To supply or equip (a vessel) with spars.
    • Derived terms
    * oversparred, undersparred

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (sparr)
  • To fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=April 15 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=After early sparring , Spurs started to take control as the interval approached and twice came close to taking the lead. Terry blocked Rafael van der Vaart's header on the line and the same player saw his cross strike the post after Adebayor was unable to apply a touch.}}
  • To strike with the feet or spurs, as cocks do.
  • To contest in words; to wrangle.

    • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) spar, .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (mineralogy) any of various microcrystalline minerals, of light, translucent, or transparent blee, which are easily cleft
  • (mineralogy) any crystal with no readily discernible faces.

    • Anagrams

    * ----