quarrel#

quarrel n Quarrel, wrangle, altercation, squabble, bickering, spat, tiff are comparable when they mean a dispute marked by anger or discord on both sides. The same distinctions in implications and connotations are found in their corresponding verbs, quarrel, wrangle, altercate, squabble, bicker, spat, tiff

Quarrel usually implies heated verbal contention, but it stresses strained or severed relations which may persist even after verbal strife has ceased

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patch up a quarrel

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she hated any kind of quarrel . . . she shuddered at raised voices and quailed before looks of hate— Stafford

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the middle class had taken over the reins. It quarreled with James I, beheaded Charles I— Barr

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Wrangle implies undignified and often futile disputation with noisy insistence on each person's opinion

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a vulgar wrangle was unknown, and indeed it was only among the upper servants that . . . jealous friction existed— Sackville-West

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makes them wrangle interminably about petty details— La ski

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Altercation and the rare verb altercate imply fighting with words as the chief weapons, though blows may also be connoted

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I have an extreme aversion to public altercation on philosophic points— Franklin

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Lydia, foreseeing an altercation, and alarmed by the threatening aspect of the man, attempted to hurry away— Shaw

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it becomes us not ... to altercate on the localities of the battle— Lytton

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Squabble stresses childish and unseemly wrangling over a petty matter; it does not necessarily imply anger or bitter feeling

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they had always squabbled . . . but their scenes, with the shouting, the insults, the threats, and the flare-ups of mutual revulsion had gradually increased— Farrell

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a mere squabble in the children's schoolroom— Moorehead

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Bickering and bicker imply constant and petulant verbal sparring or interchanges of cutting remarks; they suggest an irritable mood or mutual antagonism

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the tearing worries of political snarls, of strife between capital and labor, of factional bickering— Sulzberger

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though men may bicker with the things they love, they would not make them laughable in all eyes, not while they loved them— Tennyson

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Spat also implies an insignificant cause but, unlike squabble and bicker, it suggests an angry outburst and a quick ending without hard feelings

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it wasn't a fight, really—more of a spat than anything else— Heggen

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a teen-ager who ... is spatting with her mother over unchaperoned dates— Time

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Tiff differs from spat chiefly in implying a disagreement that manifests itself in ill humor or temporarily hurt feelings

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at the trial circumstantial evidence piled up against him, including his earlier tiff. .. which was offered as a motive— Hilton

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he retired after tiffing with Hitler— Hal Boy le

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Analogous words: *brawl, broil, fracas, melee, row, rumpus, scrap: contention, dissension, conflict, difference, variance, strife, *discord

quarrel vb wrangle, altercate, squabble, bicker, spat, tiff (see under QUARREL n)

Analogous words: *contend, fight, battle, war: dispute, agitate, argue, *discuss

Contrasted words: *agree, concur, coincide