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Webster 1913 Edition

Bicker

Bick′er

,
Noun.
[See
Beaker
.]
A small wooden vessel made of staves and hoops, like a tub.
[Prov. Eng.]

Bick′er

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Bickered
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Bickering
.]
[OE.
bikeren
, perh. fr. Celtic; cf. W.
bicra
to fight, bicker,
bicre
conflict, skirmish; perh. akin to E.
beak
.]
1.
To skirmish; to exchange blows; to fight.
[Obs.]
Two eagles had a conflict, and
bickered
together.
Holland.
2.
To contend in petulant altercation; to wrangle.
Petty things about which men cark and
bicker
.
Barrow.
3.
To move quickly and unsteadily, or with a pattering noise; to quiver; to be tremulous, like flame.
They [streamlets]
bickered
through the sunny shade.
Thomson.

Bick′er

,
Noun.
1.
A skirmish; an encounter.
[Obs.]
2.
A fight with stones between two parties of boys.
[Scot.]
Jamieson.
3.
A wrangle; also, a noise,, as in angry contention.

Webster 1828 Edition

Bicker

BICK'ER

, v.i.
1.
To skirmish; to fight off and on; that is, to make repeated attacks. [But in this sense I believe rarely used.]
2.
To quarrel; to contend in words; to scold; to contend in petulant altercation. [This is the usual signification.]
3.
To move quickly; to quiver; to be tremulous, like flame or water; as the bickering flame; the bickering stream.

Definition 2024

bicker

bicker

English

Verb

bicker ‎(third-person singular simple present bickers, present participle bickering, simple past and past participle bickered)

  1. To quarrel in a tiresome, insulting manner.
    They bickered about dinner every evening.
    • Barrow
      petty things about which men cark and bicker
  2. To move tremulously, quiver, shimmer (of a water stream, of a flame)
    • XIX cent, The Brook, by Tennyson
      I come from haunts of coot and hern, / I make a sudden sally, / And sparkle out among the fern, / To bicker down a valley.
    • Thomson
      They [streamlets] bickered through the sunny shade.
  3. To skirmish; to exchange blows; to fight.
    • Holland
      Two eagles had a conflict, and bickered together.
Derived terms
Synonyms
  • wrangle
  • See also Wikisaurus:squabble
Translations

Noun

bicker ‎(plural bickers)

  1. A skirmish; an encounter.
  2. (Scotland, obsolete) A fight with stones between two parties of boys.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Jamieson to this entry?)
  3. A wrangle; also, a noise, as in angry contention.
Translations

Etymology 2

From Scots bicker, from Middle English biker (compare beaker).

Noun

bicker ‎(plural bickers)

  1. (Scotland) A wooden drinking-cup or other dish.
    • 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Oxford 2010, p. 6:
      …the liquors were handed around in great fulness, the ale in large wooden bickers, and the brandy in capacious horns of oxen.

External links

  • bicker in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • bicker in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Etymology

Middle English bikeren ‘to attack’, from Middle Dutch bicken ‘to stab, attack’ (modern bikken ‘to hack’), from Proto-Germanic *bikjaną (compare Old English becca ‘pickax’, German picken ‘to peck, pick at’, Old Norse bikkja ‘to plunge into water’), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- ‘to smash, break’.

Pronunciation

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