as in bickering
to express different opinions about something often angrily
the children squabbled loudly over who got to play with the toy first
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Recent Examples of squabbling
Among the cast of preposterous characters, Sofie Grabol and Soren Malling are Margrethe and Werner, the squabbling couple who own the Airbnb.
—
Caryn James, HollywoodReporter, 30 Aug. 2025
Pinking, bluing, both at once, as if two birds were squabbling over the nest of sky.
—Literary Hub, 8 Aug. 2025
Caryn James, HollywoodReporter, 30 Aug. 2025
Pinking, bluing, both at once, as if two birds were squabbling over the nest of sky.
—Literary Hub, 8 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for squabbling
Verb
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Coaches are also bickering about money, a topic that would have felt out of place 10 years ago.—
Eben Novy-Williams,
Sportico.com,
5 Sep. 2025
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The casting here is perfection itself, with Cumberbatch and Colman bickering back and forth with all the drawing-room style of a new age Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall, or maybe the Burton and Taylor of The Taming of the Shrew with a dab of Virginia Woolf.—
Pete Hammond,
Deadline,
25 Aug. 2025
Verb
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At the conclusion of the state's case Wednesday, the defense moved to have the case dismissed, arguing the state had failed to prove its case.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
5 Sep. 2025
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However, a Minnesota court struck down the binary trigger ban, arguing that the legislature violated the state constitution’s single-subject clause by burying the ban inside a sprawling spending bill.—
Mia Cathell,
The Washington Examiner,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Will the two be allowed to wed, or will Ellen’s brothers, quarrelling over their father’s chair, bargain her off to other suitors to improve their chances?—
Graham Hillard,
The Washington Examiner,
22 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The emotional ballast of the film — Davidson’s bond with Dottie Achenbach (a wonderful Maxine Peake), the mother of one his childhood friends, who is also fighting her own health battles — also suffers from moments of incoherence, but the immense power of that bond goes a long way.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
7 Sep. 2025
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And while Johnson’s team is still fighting to climb NASCAR’s competitive ladder, results are starting to follow.—
Greg Engle,
Forbes.com,
7 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Squabbling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/squabbling. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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