What's the difference between bicker and contention?

Bicker


Definition:

  • (n.) A small wooden vessel made of staves and hoops, like a tub.
  • (v. i.) To skirmish; to exchange blows; to fight.
  • (v. i.) To contend in petulant altercation; to wrangle.
  • (v. i.) To move quickly and unsteadily, or with a pattering noise; to quiver; to be tremulous, like flame.
  • (n.) A skirmish; an encounter.
  • (n.) A fight with stones between two parties of boys.
  • (n.) A wrangle; also, a noise,, as in angry contention.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) When she is bickering with Bleeker about the conception, and it looks as though he is going to have the last word by telling her that he has kept her knickers as a memento, she, without missing a beat, says, "I still have your virginity."
  • (2) The head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) yesterday urged diplomats to stop bickering about a mini package of liberalisation designed to boost global commerce and warned of serious damage to the 20-year-old institution if last-ditch talks failed.
  • (3) "We wanted a backdrop of global espionage, and then the goal was to ignore it as much as possible to focus on people bickering," Reed explains.
  • (4) Over the Atlantic, as politicians bicker over the debt-reduction programme, Moody's has said the US's top-notch credit rating is under review.
  • (5) From upstairs comes the reassuring sound of children bickering.
  • (6) It could not be more fortunate for employers, the ease with which we can be set to bickering among ourselves.
  • (7) An unlikely coalition of sworn enemies, who had campaigned together under the Better Together slogan of “No Thanks”, came to a juddering and messy end as the UK parties bickered over future voting rights of MPs at Westminster.
  • (8) Which makes me wonder if the Dutch (my people btw) will succumb to the bickering and discontent of their recent Euro outing on the first sign of trouble.
  • (9) After observing a couple of weeks of bickering over who would get what time, we threatened to remove them again, whereupon the boys negotiated with each other and came up with an equitable time-sharing agreement.
  • (10) The ensuing months of uncertainty and bickering have not always gone down well with voters .
  • (11) On one question, at least, the bickering candidates in Wednesday’s Republican debate did agree: it was a juvenile way to pick a president.
  • (12) A single example, plucked at random from a lifetime's supply: years ago, after I'd been bickering with a friend who was visiting my flat in London, she fell silent for several minutes and then, pointing to my wooden floors, observed, "You know that floor's laminate, don't you?"
  • (13) Incrementally, forwards and backwards, prevaricating, bickering: so it has been for three years of European troubles that began on the periphery, in Greece, but have spread to the heartland, condemning Europe to a lost decade.
  • (14) In delivering his inflammatory speech, the president was defying Khamenei who a few weeks ago warned officials against bickering, saying those who bring disputes to public attention are "betraying" the revolution.
  • (15) Open Mon-Wed 12.30pm-1am, Thurs-Sat 12.30pm-1.30am, closed Sundays Bar The Clinic Facebook Twitter Pinterest Owned by Chile’s top satirical magazine, The Clinic , and covered in its political cartoons, this infamous bar is where the intelligentsia comes to bicker over beers.
  • (16) Amid the bickering, there was also a sense that Kerry's visit may indicate a failure of Afghanistan's fledgling democratic process.
  • (17) Mohamed El-Erian , chief executive of Pimco: For the sake of their country and the wider global economy, both parties should resist the urge to begin bickering.
  • (18) She also added her voice to the welter of criticism over the bickering performance of the BBC's top brass – current and former – in front of the Commons public accounts committee on Monday.
  • (19) … You’re going to get what I think, whether you like it or not, whether it makes you cringe every once in a while or not.” Decrying “bickering leaders in Washington DC”, Christie held out his record as a fiscally conservative governor with a record early in his tenure of bipartisan victories as evidence of change he could bring to the national capital.
  • (20) Noah’s presence should an international flavour to the show, hopefully breaking it out of its obsession with the 24-hour news channels and petty Washington bickering.

Contention


Definition:

  • (n.) A violent effort or struggle to obtain, or to resist, something; contest; strife.
  • (n.) Strife in words; controversy; altercation; quarrel; dispute; as, a bone of contention.
  • (n.) Vehemence of endeavor; eagerness; ardor; zeal.
  • (n.) A point maintained in an argument, or a line of argument taken in its support; the subject matter of discussion or strife; a position taken or contended for.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Standardization is possible after correction by the protein content of each individual section.
  • (2) One hour after direct mechanical cardiomassage (DMCM) a moderately pronounced edema of the intercellular spaces in the basal compartment of the seminiferous epithelium, normal content of lactate and succinate dehydrogenases, and a certain decrease in the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenases and NAD- and NADP-diaphorases were noted.
  • (3) Spectrophotometric determination of the sulfhydryl content in the animal tissue before (control) and after using 6,6'-Dithiodinicotinic acid is applied.
  • (4) Although Jeggo's Chinese hamster ovary cells were more responsive to mAMSA, novo still abrogated mAMSA toxicity in the mutant cells as well as in the parental Chinese hamster ovary cells 2,4-Dinitrophenol acted similarly to novo with respect to mAMSA killing, but neither compound reduced the ATP content of V79 cells.
  • (5) The content of the cavities was not stained by any of the immunocytochemical reactions applied.
  • (6) However, decapitation did not eliminate the sex difference in the tissue content of P4 during control incubations.
  • (7) Content of cyclic nucleoside monophosphates was decreased in all the eye tissues in experimental toxico-allergic uveitis as well as penetration of cAMP into the fluid of anterior chamber of the eye.
  • (8) The ATP content of the cholinergic electromotor nerves of Torpedo marmorata has been measured.
  • (9) In addition to the changes associated with blood group A, we also found a decrease in sugar content, alterations in other antigens, and changes in the levels of several glycosyltransferases in cancerous tissues.
  • (10) Past imaging techniques shown in the courtroom have made the conventional rules of evidence more difficult because of the different informational content and format required for presentation of these data.
  • (11) Arteries treated with atrial natriuretic peptide showed no alterations in relaxation or cGMP content after incubation with pertussis toxin.
  • (12) A chronic cannulation procedure is described which allows for sampling vomeronasal organ (VNO) contents repeatedly in freely moving conscious subjects.
  • (13) There was however no difference in the cross-sectional studies and no significant deleterious effect detected of tobacco use on forearm bone mineral content.
  • (14) The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that the decreased Epi response following ET was due to 1) depletion of adrenal Epi content such that adrenomedullary stimulation would not release Epi, 2) decreased Epi release with direct stimulation, i.e., desensitization of release, or 3) decreased afferent signals generated by ET itself.
  • (15) The intensity of the type III specific peptide bands correlates with the type III content of the samples.
  • (16) Stimulation of atrial H1-receptors is suggested to directly cause an increase in Ca-channel conductance independent of intracellular cAMP content.
  • (17) "With hyperspectral imaging, you can tell the chemical content of a cake just by taking a photo of it.
  • (18) We assessed changes in brain water content, as reflected by changes in tissue density, during the early recirculation period following severe forebrain ischemia.
  • (19) Proving that not all teens are content with being part of a purely digital community, Adele Mayr attended a YouTube meet-up in London’s Hyde Park.
  • (20) The aim of this study was to describe the contents of daily reports in two homes for the aged.