bickering

«bickering» in Mova's school dictionary: Arguing about small, unimportant things, again and again — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

noun (bickering; uncountable); also the -ing form of bicker (bicker, bickers, bickered, bickering)

meaning for a pupil

1) Arguing about small, unimportant things, again and again. tree →

2) (verb form) Squabbling in a petty way. tree →

sense in the lessons

Used in everyday life and stories about brothers, sisters and friends who argue over silly things. It tells the reader the argument is small and annoying, not serious. Phrases: constant bickering, stop bickering, bickering over.

examples

• Stop bickering, you two! tree →
• My brother and I were bickering about who got the front seat. tree →
• The constant bickering made the car trip feel long. tree →
• They were bickering over the last biscuit. tree →
• After a while the bickering turned into laughter. tree →
• Mum is tired of all the bickering at bedtime. tree →
• The friends bickered but soon made up. tree →

note

Uncountable as a noun. Verb: bicker; past bickered. Similar: squabbling, quarrelling (UK spelling), arguing. Bickering is smaller and sillier than a real fight.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «bickering» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.