▪ I. bicker, n.1
(ˈbɪkə(r))
Also 5 biquere, 6 biquour.
[Sc. form of beaker.]
‘A bowl or dish for containing liquor, properly one made of wood.’ Jamieson. Formerly, a drinking cup of any material; in modern Scotch applied also to vessels made of wooden staves for holding porridge, etc.
| 1458 Will of Russel (Somerset Ho.), Meum biquere argenti. c 1505 Dunbar Test. Kennedy 47 But and I hecht to tume a Bicker. a 1774 Fergusson Farmer's Ing. Poems (1845) 37 The cheering bicker gars them glibly gash. 1814 Scott Rob Roy xxiv, ‘It will be a heavy deficit—a staff out o' my bicker, I trow.’ 1884 U.P. Mag. July 337 Coopers found employment in making or mending ‘bickers’ for brose or porridge. |
b. attrib. and comb., as bickerful, bickermaker.
| 1813 W. Beattie Tales 37 (Jam.) A brown bickerfu' to quaff. 1822 Scott Pirate I. 265 (Jam.) A bickerfu' of meal. 1851 J. M. Wilson Tales Borders VIII. 162 He followed the profession of a cooper or bicker-maker. |
▪ II. bicker, n.2
(ˈbɪkə(r))
Forms: 3–4 biker, 4–5 bekir, bikre, bykkyr, 4–6 byker, 5 bekur, bikir, -kyr, bykere, bykker, bikkar, 6 bikker, bikar, 6– bicker.
[ME. biker, like the associated verb bikeren, of uncertain origin: nor can it be said whether the n. is derived from the verb or vice versâ. So far as evidence goes, the n. appears earlier, and might, as in battle, quarrel, skirmish, be the source. On the other hand, the verb has the form of a frequentative, as in sputter, totter, flutter, etc., which is in favour of its priority. Mätzner and Skeat would see in it the freq. of the rare and somewhat doubtful bike ‘? to thrust, strike with a pointed weapon,’ noted under beak v. 3, q.v. The obs. Welsh bicra is not native.]
1. Skirmishing; a skirmish, encounter, fight; exchange of blows.
| 1297 R. Glouc. 538 Bituene the castel of Gloucetre & Brumefeld al so Ther was ofte biker gret, & muche harm ido. c 1400 Destr. Troy xx. 8363 Mony bold in the bekur were on bent leuit! 1440 Promp. Parv. 35/2 Bikyr of fytynge [1499 bykere or feightinge], pugna. 1530 Palsgr. 198/1 Bicker fightyng, escarmovche. |
2. esp. An encounter with missiles; anciently an attack with arrows; in later Sc., a street or school fight with stones and the like.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace iv. 547 Twenty he had yat nobill archars war..On Wallace sett a bykker bauld and keyne. c 1505 Dunbar Gold. Terge 145 A wonder lusty bikkir [v.r. bikar] me assayit. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 322 With tha stanis thir stalwart carlis strang Ane bikker maid. 1810 Sir A. Boswell Edinb. 164 From hand and sling now fly the whizzing stones..The bicker rages. 1861 J. Hannay Ess. fr. Q. Rev. 371 He went to the High School, and joined in the street fights called bickers. |
3. Quarrel, contention; angry altercation.
| 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 79 Gospatrik þat suffred biker, he reft boþe lond & liþe. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 2661 If thou sey nay we two shul have a bekyr [v.r. byker, biker, bekir, bikre, bykkyr]. c 1430 Hymns Virg. (1867) 46 Þe bolder in bikir y bidde him bataile. 1883 Academy 15 Sept. 175/2 The rise and progress of the colony, its bickers with autocratic Governors and Chief Justices. |
4. Noise as of contention, rattle of light guns, sound of a rapid stream descending over a stony channel, etc. Cf. bicker v. 4.
| 1870 Daily News 7 Dec., No bicker of mere field artillery. 1872 Blackie Lays Highl. 47 Leap the white-maned fountains With lusty bicker to the vale below. |
b. Sc. A short rapid run.
| 1785 Burns Dr. Hornbook v, Leeward whyles, against my will, I took a bicker. |
▪ III. bicker, v.
(ˈbɪkə(r))
Forms: 4–5 bi-, byker(e, 4 bi-, bykkir, -yr, 4–6 beker, -ir, 5 bekyre, bikre, bickre, byccer, -ker, bykre, -kir, bykker, -kyr, byger, 6 becker, bikker, -ar, 5– bicker.
[See bicker n.]
1. intr. To skirmish, exchange blows; to fight.
| 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 256 Þan is tyme to bikere with þe kyng of France. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xxiii. 78 Ther to abyde and bykere · aȝeyns beliales children. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 36 Bekeryn or fyghtyn, pugno, dimico. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. i. 100/1, I have bickered with the French at Brest and Deepe. 1635 N. R. tr. Camden's Hist. Eliz. iii. 231 After they had bickered together a little while..and neither of them hurt, they dranke a carowse and so parted friends. 1848 Kingsley Saint's Trag. ii. xi. 138 Slaughtered bickering for some petty town. |
† b. Said esp. of archers and slingers, before battle was joined. Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy xvii. 7400 Paris..With his bowmen full bold bykrit with the grekes. c 1470 Henry Wallace iv. 556 Ynglis archaris..Amang ye Scottis bykkeryt with all thair mycht. c 1505 Dunbar Gold. Terge 194 Thay..bikkerit vnabaisitly: The schour of arowis rappit on as rain. c 1534 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (1846) I. 67 Bee fore hand strokes thei firste bickered with dartes and slinges. |
c. fig.
| 1593 Bacchus Bountie in Harl. Misc. (1809) II. 264 Bickering with the broth of bountifull Bacchus. 1647 W. Browne Polex. ii. 46 They [passions] have not such ability as to bicker with absence. |
† 2. trans. To attack with repeated strokes; esp. to assail with missiles. Obs.
| 1352 Minot Poems 51 A bore es boun ȝow to biker. 1375 Barbour Bruce ix. 152 Thair archaris..thai send To bykkir thame. c 1400 Destr. Troy 10685 Þan he braid out a brand, bikrid hym hard. a 1550 Christis Kirke Gr. xix, The buschment haill about him brak And bikkerit him with bowis. |
3. intr. To dispute, quarrel, wrangle.
| a 1450 Chester Pl. (1847) II. 51 All againste us boote he not to becker. 1614 B. Jonson Barth. Fair v. iii, You'd have an ill match on't, if you bicker with him here. 1641 Milton Ch. Discip. ii. Wks. (1851) 46 Though their Merchants bicker in the East Indies. 1753 J. Collier Art Torment. 157 To keep on bickering on this irksome subject, till you have put her in a passion. 1859 Tennyson Enid 1174 Tho' men may bicker with the things they love. |
4. transf. Applied to the making of any rapidly repeated noisy action, suggesting the showering of blows, as the brawling of a rapid stream over a stony channel, the pattering of rain, etc.
| 1748 Thomson Cast. Indol. iii. 26 Glittering streamlets play'd..as they bicker'd thro' the sunny glade. 1817 Coleridge Sibyl. Leaves (1862) 218 Against the glass The rain did beat and bicker. 1820 Scott Monast. ix, At the crook of the glen, Where bickers the burnie. 1855 Tennyson Brook 26 And sparkle out among the fern, To bicker down a valley. 1874 Holland Mistr. Manse v. 33 The swallow bickered 'neath the eaves. |
b. Sc. To make a short quick run; describing the rapid vigorous action of the feet. Cf. pelt, skelp.
| 1792 Burns Wks. II. 404 The dreary glen through which the herd-callan maun bicker. 1879 Jamieson s.v., I met him coming down the gait as fast as he could bicker. |
5. poet. Applied to the quick movement of flame and light: To flash, gleam, quiver, glisten. Cf. flicker.
| 1667 [see bickering ppl. a. 3]. 1813 Shelley Q. Mab ix. 154 The restless wheels..Whose flashing spokes Bicker and burn to gain their destined goal. 1827 Keble Chr. Y. Matrim., Those fires That bicker round in wavy spires. 1859 Tennyson Enid 1298 She saw Dust, and the points of lances bicker in it. 1876 Browning Pacchiarotto 150 And bicker like a flame. |