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Added 9 October 2026

bicker

/ˈbɪkɚ/ verb

In Latin: iūrgō Wiktionary

verb Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about bicker at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

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 skirmish; to exchange blows; to fight.

noun

A skirmish; an encounter.
A fight with stones between two parties of boys.
A wrangle; also, a noise, as in angry contention.

noun

A wooden drinking-cup or other dish.

Origin

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”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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