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Bicker vs Squabble - What's the difference?

bicker | squabble |

Squabble is a synonym of bicker.



As verbs the difference between bicker and squabble

is that bicker is to quarrel in a tiresome, insulting manner while squabble is to participate in a minor fight or argument.

As nouns the difference between bicker and squabble

is that bicker is a skirmish; an encounter while squabble is a minor fight or argument as between children, for example.

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

    * *

    squabble

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A minor fight or argument as between children, for example.

    • Derived terms

    * squabbly

    Verb

    (squabbl)
  • To participate in a minor fight or argument.
    • ''The brothers were always squabbling with each other.
  • * I. Watts
    • The sense of these propositions is very plain, though logicians might squabble a whole day whether they should rank them under negative or affirmative.
  • (printing) To disarrange, so that the letters or lines stand awry and require readjustment.
    • to squabble type

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * squabbler