bicker

Meanings

1. To quarrel in a tiresome, insulting manner.
2. To brawl or move tremulously, quiver, shimmer (of a water stream, light, flame, etc.)
3. To patter.
4. To skirmish; to exchange blows; to fight.

1. A skirmish; an encounter.
2. A fight with stones between two parties of boys.
3. A wrangle; also, a noise, as in angry contention.
4. The process by which selective eating clubs at Princeton University choose new members.

1. A wooden drinking-cup or other dish.

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”).