bicker.
To quarrel in a tiresome, insulting manner.
Meaning & usage
To quarrel in a tiresome, insulting manner.
They bickered about dinner every evening.
To brawl or move tremulously, quiver, shimmer (of a water stream, light, flame, etc.)
To patter.
To skirmish; to exchange blows; to fight.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der. 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”).
A skirmish; an encounter.
A fight with stones between two parties of boys.
A wrangle; also, a noise, as in angry contention.
The process by which selective eating clubs at Princeton University choose new members.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der. 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”).
A wooden drinking-cup or other dish.
Where this word comes from
From Scots bicker, from Middle English biker. Doublet of beaker.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.