quarrel.

1. An angry disagreement; as a verb, to argue angrily with someone.

2. A reason for objection or complaint; as a verb, to challenge or find fault with something.

3. A bolt or arrow with a square-shaped head, especially one used in a crossbow.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a bitter quarrel
• pick a quarrel
• quarrel over money
• settle a quarrel

On the page

Their quarrel began over the missing key but soon exposed years of resentment.

The sisters quarreled over whether to sell the house, then fell silent when their mother entered.

Her quarrel was with the allocation of funds, not with the project itself.

Historians may quarrel with his dates while accepting his broader argument.

A quarrel struck the gate and remained embedded in the wet wood.

Usage notes

Noun: quarrel, quarrels. Intransitive verb: quarrel; third-person singular quarrels; past and past participle quarreled (UK commonly quarrelled); present participle quarreling (UK commonly quarrelling). Future: will quarrel. Patterns: quarrel with someone about/over something; have a quarrel with someone. The spelling variants are forms of this one entry, not separate words. Register: neutral. Commonness: common in the disagreement meanings; crossbow meaning specialized and historical (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).