variants
or quarrelled
as in bickered
to express different opinions about something often angrily
the coach and the referee quarreled about whether the ball was in bounds
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of quarreled
For the past seven months, SDC has quarreled with state officials and lawmakers over its community action agency title.
—
Gina Lee Castro, jsonline.com, 26 Nov. 2025
Rhoden's biggest political victory this year was getting the state Legislature to sign off on a $650 million plan in September to replace the 141-year-old state penitentiary, an issue the Legislature had quarreled over for years.
—CBS News, 18 Nov. 2025
Mayor Sue Finkam found the dollars to quell many concerns from city councilors about the budget, but officials still quarreled over the transparency of some dollars earmarked for Carmel’s legal department.
—Jake Allen, IndyStar, 22 Oct. 2025
Franklin’s son and grandson quarreled.
—Stacy Schiff, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2025
Most had quarrelled with someone right before the act.
—Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2025
Bangkok and Phnom Penh have quarreled for decades over undemarcated parts of their 508-mile land border, which was first mapped by France in 1907 when Cambodia was its colony.
—Reuters, NBC news, 10 Aug. 2025
As a couple, Erin, who runs an equestrian center at her home in Reno, and Serafini, who since 2017 had worked as an equipment operator at a remote Nevada gold mine, often quarreled with Gary and Wendy.
—Chris Spargo, People.com, 5 Aug. 2025
Gina Lee Castro, jsonline.com, 26 Nov. 2025
Rhoden's biggest political victory this year was getting the state Legislature to sign off on a $650 million plan in September to replace the 141-year-old state penitentiary, an issue the Legislature had quarreled over for years.
—CBS News, 18 Nov. 2025
Mayor Sue Finkam found the dollars to quell many concerns from city councilors about the budget, but officials still quarreled over the transparency of some dollars earmarked for Carmel’s legal department.
—Jake Allen, IndyStar, 22 Oct. 2025
Franklin’s son and grandson quarreled.
—Stacy Schiff, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2025
Most had quarrelled with someone right before the act.
—Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2025
Bangkok and Phnom Penh have quarreled for decades over undemarcated parts of their 508-mile land border, which was first mapped by France in 1907 when Cambodia was its colony.
—Reuters, NBC news, 10 Aug. 2025
As a couple, Erin, who runs an equestrian center at her home in Reno, and Serafini, who since 2017 had worked as an equipment operator at a remote Nevada gold mine, often quarreled with Gary and Wendy.
—Chris Spargo, People.com, 5 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for quarreled
Verb
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The actors jokingly bickered about their history with the ceremony, with Cheadle remarking that Clooney hadn’t won since 2026 winner Timothée Chalamet was 3 years old.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
11 Jan. 2026
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On 33 occasions since 2017, Congress has been forced to pass emergency extensions to the flood insurance program, as lawmakers bickered over budgets and looming shutdowns threatened to disrupt it, according to a letter the National Association of Realtors sent to Congress ahead of the shutdown.—
Rukmini Callimachi,
New York Times,
9 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Konyndyk argued that mortality data won’t reflect many adverse outcomes of the aid cuts, because humanitarians and aid recipients are frantically reallocating funds; for example, taking money away from education to put it towards food.—
Lauren Kent,
CNN Money,
4 Feb. 2026
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Clean-power investment from the Gulf — and particularly from Saudi Arabia and the UAE — into Africa is surging, but could have even greater impact were it targeted more towards power infrastructure, a new report argued.—
Prashant Rao,
semafor.com,
3 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Then, amid the pandemic, my research on cultural destruction was suddenly everywhere as Azerbaijan launched a war in our ancestral homeland—fought in the shadow of erasures like Djulfa.—
Simon Maghakyan,
Time,
30 Jan. 2026
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As the fish fruitlessly fought the current, neurons that release norepinephrine fired; in response, calcium built up in astrocytes.—
Ingrid Wickelgren,
Quanta Magazine,
30 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Protestors and federal agents clashed near the Edward Roybal Federal Court Building and the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.—
Paris Barraza,
USA Today,
31 Jan. 2026
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Take the recent afternoon in south Minneapolis, where dozens of protesters, some in gas masks, clashed with immigration agents in south Minneapolis.—
Tim Sullivan,
Fortune,
29 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Quarreled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quarreled. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.
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