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argy-bargy

noun
/ˈɑɹdʒiˌbɑɹdʒi//ˈɑːdʒiˌbɑːdʒi/UK

Etymology

From Scots, variant of argle-bargle, documented since 1822, presumably due to replacement of + -le (“frequentative”) with + -y (“diminutive”), documented since 1857, but without effect on the meaning.

Definitions

  1. A noisy disagreement, often with some fighting

    • There was a wee bit of an argy-bargy over the dodgy matter.
    • At least if you adopt a zero tolerance approach, when you next see a banner advertising “CD’s, DVD’s, Video’s, and Book’s”, you won’t just stay indoors getting depressed about it. Instead you will engage in some direct-action argy-bargy!

  2. To argue.

    • Ten minutes at the least did she stand at the door argy-bargying with that man.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for argy-bargy. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA