squabble

1600s, probably of North Germanic origin and ultimately imitative.[1]

Related to Swedish dialectal skvabbel (“a dispute, quarrel, gossip”), Norwegian dialectal skvabba (“to prattle”), German dialectal schwabbeln (“to babble, prattle”), Swedish dialectal skvappa (“to chide, scold”, literally “make a splash”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɒbl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɑːbl/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒbəl

squabble (plural squabbles)

1. A minor fight or argument.

   The children got into a squabble about who should ride in the front of the car.

• squabbly

squabble (third-person singular simple present squabbles, present participle squabbling, simple past and past participle squabbled)

1. (intransitive) To participate in a minor fight or argument; to quarrel.

   The brothers were always squabbling with each other.

   • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC:

     The sense of these propositions is very plain and easy, though logicians might perhaps squabble a whole day whether they should rank them under negative or affirmative.

2. (transitive, printing) To disarrange, so that the letters or lines stand awry and require readjustment.

   to squabble type

• See also Thesaurus:squabble

• bum-squabble
• squabbler