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bicker

verb
/ˈbɪkɚ/US/ˈbɪkə/UK

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *bikjaną Proto-West Germanic *bikkjan Old Dutch *bikken Middle Dutch bickenbor. Proto-Germanic *-urōną Proto-West Germanic *-urōn Old English -erian Middle English -eren Middle English bikeren English bicker From Middle English bikeren (“to attack”), from Middle Dutch bicken (“to stab, thrust, attack”) + -er (frequentative suffix), from Old Dutch *bikken, from Proto-West Germanic *bikkjan, from Proto-Germanic *bikjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to smash, break”). See also Old English becca (“pickax”), Dutch bikken (“to hack”), German picken (“to peck, pick at”), Old Norse bikkja (“to plunge into water”); compare also German Low German bickern (“to nibble, gnaw”).

  1. derived from *bʰeg-✻ — “to smash, break”
  2. derived from *bikjaną✻
  3. derived from *bikkjan✻
  4. derived from *bikken✻
  5. derived from bicken — “to stab, thrust, attack”
  6. inherited from bikeren — “to attack”

Definitions

  1. To quarrel in a tiresome, insulting manner.

    • They bickered about dinner every evening.
    • petty things about which men cark and bicker
    • Travelling with their granny, who seems more interested in her crossword puzzle than them, they bicker and fight in a futile bid to get her attention. Oh, the joys of travelling during the school holidays!

  2. To brawl or move tremulously, quiver, shimmer (of a water stream, light, flame, etc.)

    • Mean time unnumber'd glittering Streamlets play'd, / And hurled every-where their Waters ſheen; / That, as they bicker'd through the ſunny Glade, / Though reſtleſs ſtill themſelves, a lulling Murmur made.
    • I come from haunts of coot and hern, / I make a sudden sally, / And sparkle out among the fern, / To bicker down a valley.

  3. To patter.

  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. To skirmish

      To skirmish; to exchange blows; to fight.

    2. A skirmish

      A skirmish; an encounter.

    3. A fight with stones between two parties of boys.

    4. A wrangle

      A wrangle; also, a noise, as in angry contention.

    5. The process by which selective eating clubs at Princeton University choose new members.

      • Bicker process varies by club, and there are often concerns of the rights of female students during bicker […]

    6. A wooden drinking-cup or other dish.

      • …the liquors were handed around in great fulness, the ale in large wooden bickers, and the brandy in capacious horns of oxen.

The neighborhood

Derived

bickerer, bicker like a married couple, bicker like an old married couple, bickerment, bickersome

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bicker. 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