quarrel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkwɒɹ(ə)l/
enpr: kwôrʹəl
ipa: /ˈkwɔɹəl/
enpr: kwŏrʹəl
ipa: /ˈkwɑɹəl/
rhymes: -ɒɹəl
Forms: form: quarrels
form: quarrell
Etymology: From Middle English querele (“altercation, dispute; argument, debate; armed combat; trial by combat; basis for dispute, complaint; claim, legal suit; a lament; illness”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman querele [and other forms] and Middle French querele, querelle (“altercation, dispute; basis for dispute; side in a dispute; complaint; accusation; legal suit; lament; problem”) (modern French querelle), and from their etymon Latin querēla, querella (“dispute; argument; complaint, grievance; legal complaint; lament; illness”), from querī + -ēla, -ella (suffix forming nouns). querī (“to complain; to bewail, lament; to be indignant”) comes from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwes- (“to puff; to sigh”).
Senses: examples: text: We got into a silly quarrel about what food to order.
text: Quarrels would not last long, if the fault was only on one side.
ref: 1851, Francis, Duc de la Rochefoucauld [i.e., François de La Rochefoucauld], translated by [anonymous], Moral Reflections, Sentences and Maxims of Francis, Duc de la Rochefoucauld. […], New York, N.Y.: William Gowans, →OCLC, number 523, page 140:
text: But capital was proving difficult to raise; rumours were in the air that the G.W.R. and L.S.W.R. were about to patch up their quarrel, and the people of Southampton, who twelve months earlier had staged a torch-light procession to celebrate the passing of the D.N.S.R. Act, were increasingly loath to part with their cash.
ref: 1955 February, T. B. Sands, “The Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 79:
text: All quarrels halt at the grave.
ref: 2016 June 17, John O’Sullivan, “U.K. Membership in the European Union”, in C-SPAN, 4:34 from the start, archived from the original on 23 Dec 2020:
synonyms: word: argument
word: argy-bargy
word: altercation
word: barney
word: bawl out
word: blue
word: bobbery
word: brawl
word: clash
word: conflict
word: controversy
word: debate
word: difference
word: ding-dong
word: disagreement
word: discordance
word: disharmony
word: disputation
word: dispute
word: dissonance
word: disunion
word: dustup
word: face-off
word: falling out
word: feud
word: fight
word: flite
word: hassle
word: quarrel
word: quibble
word: row
word: spat
word: squabble
word: tangle
word: threap
word: tiff
word: wrangle
glosses: A dispute or heated argument (especially one that is verbal).
examples: text: A few customers in the shop had some quarrels with us, so we called for the manager.
text: I have no quarrel with her; it’s her partner whom I dislike.
text: I maruaile much my Lords what rage it is,
That moues my people whom I loue ſo deare,
Vnder a ſhow of quarrell good and iust,
To riſe againſt vs thus in mutinies, […]
ref: 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:
text: You miſtake ſir I am ſure, no man hath any quarrell to me: my remembrance is very free and cleere from any image of offence done to any man.
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 269, column 1:
text: Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him [John the Baptist], and would haue killed him, but ſhe could not.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 6:19, column 1:
text: I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!
ref: 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 10–11:
text: The material is powerful, though more theatrical than realistic. The writing is good. On thinking the play over, however, I came up with a few quarrels with it, and I wonder if to some Rabe has not attempted to cover some weaknesses in construction with the sensationalism of shocking bloodshed.
ref: 1976 December 4, Robert Chesley, “"Streamers" Deals with Gay Triangle”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 23, page 11:
glosses: Often preceded by a form of to have: a basis or ground of dispute or objection; a complaint; also, a feeling or situation of ill will and unhappiness caused by this.
examples: text: If I can faſten but one cup vpon him, / With that which he hath drunke to night already, / Hee'll be as full of quarrell and offence, / As my young miſtris dog:— [...]
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 30:
text: [A]ll beaſts and birds aſſembled; and forgetting their ſeuerall appetites; ſome of pray, ſome of game, ſome of quarrell, ſtood all ſociably together liſtening vnto the ayres and accords of the Harpe; […]
ref: 1605, Francis Bacon, “The First Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folio 32, verso:
glosses: A propensity to quarrel; quarrelsomeness.
Hyponyms: double quarrel
Derived terms: it takes two to make a quarrel
pick a quarrel
pick-quarrel
Related terms: querent