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 sb.]
1. intr. To skirmish, exchange blows; to fight.
c. 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., trans. 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.
1508. Dunbar, Gold. Targe, 194.
| Thay come and bikkerit vnabaisitly | |
| The schour of arowis rappit on as rayn. |
c. 1534. trans. 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. Miss 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.
