squabble

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a noisy, undignified quarrel, usually about something petty or unimportant

   A brief squabble over the seating plan delayed the meeting.

2. 2
   verb

   to quarrel noisily over petty or unimportant matters

   The committee members continued to squabble over minor wording changes.

Probably of Scandinavian origin and imitative in character, related to Swedish dialect skvabbel, 'a dispute or quarrel,' and Norwegian dialect forms meaning 'to prattle.' The noun and verb entered English around the beginning of the seventeenth century.

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