Bickering

Definition: Bickering

Bickering

Noun

1. Petty quarrel.

Date "bickering" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Synonyms: Bickering

Synonyms: bicker (n), fuss (n), spat (n), squabble (n), tiff (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Disagreement	Noun: disagreement; discord, discordance; dissonance, dissidence, discrepancy; unconformity; incongruity, incongruence; discongruity, mesalliance; jarring; Verb: dissension; conflict; (opposition); bickering, clashing, misunderstanding, wrangle.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	Ah! you had reckoned upon some bickering.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
George Bush	1989-1993	So tonight I am asking the Congressional leaders and the Federal Reserve to cooperate with us in a study, led by Chairman Alan Greenspan, to sort out our technical differences so that we can avoid a return to unproductive partisan bickering.
Bill Clinton	1993-2001	Surely, they did not do this to advance the politics of petty bickering and extreme partisanship they plainly deplore.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Bickering" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 57.89% of the time. "Bickering" is used about 57 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (-ing form)	57.89%	33	60,273
Noun (singular)	36.84%	21	76,261
Noun (proper)	3.51%	2	245,945
Adjective (general or positive)	1.75%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	57	N/A

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "bickering"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		grindje (altercation, blowup, bobbery, brawl, breach, breeze, broil, contention, contest, disagreement, discord, disputation, dispute, dissension, feud, fight, fray, friction, jar, quarrel, squabble, strife, variance, wrangle). (various references)

Chinese		吵嘴 (Bicker, Bickered). (various references)

French		picoterie, picotant. (various references)

German		zankend (brawling, quarreling, scolding, squabbling). (various references)

Hungarian		távolodó, reszkető (flickery, quaky, quavering, quavery, shaking, shaky, shuddering, trembling, tremulous, trepidant, vibrant, wobbly), pörlekedés (altercation, broil, jangle, nagging, squabble), pörlekedő (contentious, shrewd, shrewish), lobogó (banner, blazing, bunting, flag, flaming, flaring, flaunting, flying, standard, streamer), futó (bishop, caducous, cursorial, passing, runner, running, track and field events, transient), felcsillanó, elsiető, civakodás (altercation, brabble, brawl, brawling, breeze, broil, disunion, jangle, jar, jarring, miff, quarrel, spat, squabble). (various references)

Indonesian		pertengkaran (bustup, contention, contest, fracas, fray, tow-row, wrangle), cedera (disagreement, fickle). (various references)

Italian		battibecco (hassle, miff, spat, squabble). (various references)

Manx		troiddagh (bellicose, belligerent), jengleyrys (disputation, wrangling), jengleyragh (disputatious, wrangling), ganglaneys, ganglaneagh (jangly). (various references)

Pig Latin		ickeringbay

Romanian		ciorovãialã (spat), ciondãnealã (blow up, chiding, miff, scolding, scrap, wrangle). (various references)

Scottish		cr� mhan (constant scolding or grumbling). (various references)

Spanish		disputa (argument, bicker, contention, debate, disputation, dispute, fight, haggling, strife, wrangle). (various references)

Swedish		gnabb (bickerings, spat, tiff, wrangling). (various references)

Turkish		tartışma (altercation, argument, argumentation, brawl, breeze, broil, bust up, contention, contest, contestation, controversy, cross talk, debate, disagreement, discussion, disputation, dispute, hassle, jangle, moot, parley, quarrel, rap, row, set to, shooting match, spar, sparring, teach-in, wordy warfare, wrangle), münakaşa (altercation, argument, argumentation, disputation, dispute, hassle, spat), didişme (jar), atışma (altercation, battle of words, duet, quarrel, shooting match, spat, tiff), çekişme (chaffer, cliffhanger, competition, conflict, contention, contest, contestation, controversy, debate, duel, fight, quarreling, rivalry, strife, tug of war). (various references)

Ukranian		суперечки через дрібниці, сперечання (altercation, wrangle), дзюрчання (babble, babbling, chatter, murmuring, purl, ripple). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	velitatio. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Misspellings
	"Bickering" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: bekerian, bickerings, bikeing, blinkering, Boccerini, Boccherini, wickering. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "bickering" (pronounced bi"kering)
5	-i" k er i ng	dickering, flickering, snickering.
4	-k er i ng	anchoring, brokering, conquering, hankering, hunkering, massacring, tinkering.
3	-er i ng	administering, altering, angering, answering, auguring, backfiring, badgering, bantering, bartering, battering, belaboring, beleaguering, bettering, bewildering, blistering, blundering, blustering, bolstering, bordering, bothering, butchering, capturing, catering, censoring, centering, chartering, chattering, clamoring, clobbering, clustering, cluttering, coloring, configuring, conjuring, considering, cornering, countering, covering, cowering, culturing, deciphering, delivering, desiring, devouring, diapering, differing, discovering, disfavoring, disfiguring, dismembering, dithering, doctoring, doddering, embroidering, empowering, encountering, endangering, endeavoring, entering, factoring, faltering, fathering, favoring, feathering, featuring, festering, figuring, filibustering, filtering, fingering, flattering, flavoring, floundering, flowering, fluttering, fostering, foundering, fracturing, frittering, furthering, garnering, gathering, gerrymandering, gesturing, glimmering, glittering, glowering, grandfathering, guttering, hammering, hampering, harboring, hectoring, hindering, hollering, honoring, hovering, hungering, injuring, inquiring, laboring, laundering, lawyering, layering, lecturing, lettering, levering, lingering, littering, loitering, lowering, lumbering, majoring, maneuvering, manufacturing, mastering, maundering, meandering, measuring, mentoring, metering, minoring, mirroring, mitering, mongering, monitoring, mothering, motoring, murdering, murmuring, mustering, muttering, nattering, neighboring, neutering, nonmanufacturing, numbering, nurturing, offering, ordering, outnumbering, pampering, pandering, papering, partnering, peppering, perjuring, pestering, petering, philandering, picturing, pilfering, plastering, plundering, pondering, posturing, powdering, powering, pressuring, proffering, prospering, puncturing, puttering, quivering, recapturing, reconsidering, recovering, rediscovering, reentering, registering, rejiggering, remembering, rendering, reoffering, reordering, requiring, restructuring, rewiring, rupturing, savoring, scampering, scattering, scouring, sculpturing, sequestering, severing, shattering, sheltering, shimmering, shivering, shouldering, showering, shuddering, shuttering, simmering, slaughtering, slithering, slobbering, slumbering, smattering, smoldering, smothering, sobering, soldering, soldiering, souring, spattering, spiering, splintering, sponsoring, sputtering, squandering, staggering, structuring, stuttering, suffering, surrendering, swaggering, sweltering, tailoring, tampering, tapering, teetering, tempering, tendering, thundering, torturing, tottering, towering, transpiring, triggering, tutoring, uncovering, unflattering, unwavering, ushering, uttering, venturing, wagering, wallpapering, wandering, warmongering, watering, wavering, weathering, whimpering, whispering, withering, wondering, Wuthering, zippering.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "b-c-e-g-i-i-k-n-r"
	-1 letter: bricking.
	-2 letters: becking, kerbing, recking, ricking.
	-3 letters: bicker, biking, binger, birkie, cering, cringe, ickier, inkier, irenic, irking, nicker, ricing.
	-4 letters: begin, being, biker, bikie, binge, brick, brine, bring, brink, eking, genic, genii, giber, icier, icing, icker, inker, iring, kibei, nicer, reign, reink, renig, ricin.
	-5 letters: beck, berg, bice, bier, bike, bine, birk, bren, brie, brig.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.