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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for quarreled
Verb
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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.—
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In recent years, the companies have bickered about the rise of streaming services, in which the media companies are investing billions of dollars and which lure away cable and satellite customers.—
Verb
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But the department has argued the sheer volume of documents that need to be found, uploaded, reviewed, redacted and published has forced it to instead release the files online on a rolling basis, with a series of enormous document dumps over the course of several days in mid-December.—
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Skelton argued that the city’s code lays out a specific process for declaring an animal as dangerous, which often entails a day in municipal court.—
Verb
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Firefighters fought the fire both inside and outside the house, and additional firefighters went inside to search for people.—
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And neither do the AI-skeptics who fought the hardest for it.—
Verb
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Four Democratic-Farm-Labor Party lawmakers who chair state Senate education committees cited Minneapolis Public Schools canceling classes and extracurricular activities last week after federal agents reportedly clashed with students and staff during Roosevelt High School’s dismissal on Wednesday.—
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The two countries have clashed in a border dispute, causing dozens of civilian and military deaths and forcing tens of thousands of civilians on both sides to evacuate.—
Cite this Entry
“Quarreled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quarreled. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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