What's the difference between fuss and spat?

Fuss


Definition:

  • (n.) A tumult; a bustle; unnecessary or annoying ado about trifles.
  • (n.) One who is unduly anxious about trifles.
  • (v. i.) To be overbusy or unduly anxious about trifles; to make a bustle or ado.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But insiders say the industry has been watering down the proposals, and no amount of fussing over the detail is going to get round the central point.
  • (2) But minutes after the final whistle, 76% of respondents to a Corriere della Sport online poll were blaming Lippi and in the post-match press conference the man himself was quick to take the blame, appearing to be anxiously awaiting the moment he can disappear quietly from the scene to be replaced by the Fiorentina manager, Cesare Prandelli, a switch decided with little fuss and no media debate just before the World Cup.
  • (3) The decade of the Delors presidency from 1985 saw further steps towards integration taken with relatively little fuss.
  • (4) Mel The squirrel in series two, with the balls [incidental footage of a squirrel caused a fuss on social media in 2011].
  • (5) But the Depp dog furore is a perfect example of the different approach Joyce will take to leading the Nationals – the rural-based minor party in the governing Coalition that has in recent years had a series of gentlemanly leaders who, wherever possible, have settled differences with their Coalition parties quietly, created public fusses only rarely, and international incidents never.
  • (6) It is now on sale in the store after publisher Europa Editions kicked up a fuss.
  • (7) If a contractor was involved in an incident which caused a fuss, they were whisked out of the country by their company.
  • (8) I don't see what all the fuss is about Germany v England.
  • (9) Such was its challenge that, when it was found in the library of a school run by the Inner London Education Authority in 1986, the fuss exploded and the book was subsequently cited as one of the spurs to the controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Act of 1988.
  • (10) He has long been called a "rock star president" and there was lots of fuss in Thailand preceding US president Barack Obama's first visit to Bangkok on Sunday.
  • (11) Outside, there’s no sign of life except one bearded oaf on a chopper and a kid at the back door, holding a picture of Hot Fuss-era Brandon Flowers , praying for a brief encounter.
  • (12) Stepping back from the fuss, it is worth thinking about whether the project's aims make sense.
  • (13) Her parents, a midwife and a retired fireman, said they were proud of their supremely focussed, "no fuss" daughter.
  • (14) He attracts controversy in February while denying Jermain Defoe elbowed Nicolás Otamendi, saying foreign players “make a big fuss of it.
  • (15) The fuss over who should pay for this scheme has, rather sadly in my view, overshadowed its goals.
  • (16) Perhaps air pollution hasn’t been solved because no one makes a fuss: scarier than the smog in Delhi , Kolkata and London is the stoicism of residents for whom bad air has become part of daily life.
  • (17) To this end it is they, not politicians, who need to be making a fuss about full-face veils and the need to phase them out.
  • (18) Some case notes make harrowing reading: cells occupied by disabled prisoners with no wall bars and inmates having to drag themselves across the floor and falling frequently; PAS "having to make a fuss" to get inmates supplied with basic needs, such as walking sticks, which are then taken away when a prisoner moves prison; and an incontinent prisoner with mental health problems sleeping naked on a urine-soaked mattress.
  • (19) Why quite such a fuss when nothing much actually happened?
  • (20) The infant's state was recorded on a check-list every 10 sec using the following categories for sleep and wakefulness: Quiet Sleep A, Quiet Sleep B, Active Sleep Without REM, Active Sleep With REM, Active Sleep With Dense REM, Drowsy, Alert Inactivity, WAKING Activity, Fussing, Crying, and Indefinite State.

Spat


Definition:

  • () imp. of Spit.
  • (n.) A young oyster or other bivalve mollusk, both before and after it first becomes adherent, or such young, collectively.
  • (v. i. & t.) To emit spawn; to emit, as spawn.
  • (n.) A light blow with something flat.
  • (n.) Hence, a petty combat, esp. a verbal one; a little quarrel, dispute, or dissension.
  • (v. i.) To dispute.
  • (v. t.) To slap, as with the open hand; to clap together; as the hands.
  • () of Spit

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But the Franco-British spat sparked by Dave's rejection of Angela and Nicolas's cunning plan to save the euro has been given wings by news the US credit agencies may soon strip France of its triple-A rating and is coming along very nicely, thank you. "
  • (2) If wide notice is taken of a current spat over what we can read about Shakespeare’s sexuality into the sonnets in the correspondence columns of the Times Literary Supplement, Sonnet 20 may be a future favourite at civil unions.
  • (3) He wanted to stay on longer than the traditional retirement age but became involved in a nasty spat with the then-chairman, Peter Sutherland.
  • (4) He’s spat on and has wee thrown at him.” Rutherford is also concerned about the governance of the sport.
  • (5) Venom entered the eyes of 9 patients spat at by the spitting cobra, Naja nigricollis.
  • (6) The British parliament’s vote against airstrikes has long been cited by Obama and others as a causal factor but Kerry made the link explicit just a week after a diplomatic spat with the UK’s prime minister, Theresa May, over a United Nations resolution that condemned Israel.
  • (7) The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has attempted to seize the initiative in the bitter spat on energy prices by pledging a 20-month freeze .
  • (8) She had been sworn at and spat on – anything to force the expression they wanted on to her face.
  • (9) Some said they saw stones; others said they had been spat at.
  • (10) The England winger has been training with the under-21s for the past two and a half months after being frozen out by Mauricio Pochettino in the wake of his public spat with Nathan Gardiner, Tottenham’s fitness coach, following a win against Aston Villa in November.
  • (11) By the time the latest spat came before the FCC, Karr argues, net activists had sharpened their tactics and raised their game.
  • (12) Still alive, he was then surrounded by people who cursed and spat at him, kicked him in the head and tried to hit him with a chair.
  • (13) The Greece midfielder Giannis Maniatis was so enraged after a training ground spat that he booked a himself on a flight back to Athens before being persuaded not to walk out on Fernando Santos’s squad.
  • (14) Mariano Rajoy said he did not want the dispute to "go further", after a spat about fishing escalated into a full-blown diplomatic row with Britain.
  • (15) They are saying she needs to realise that she needs to build allies.” The Tory source spoke out after Kenneth Clarke blew into the open a spat between the Conservative leadership and the home secretary’s team after two of May’s special advisers declined to take part in telephone canvassing in the recent Rochester and Strood byelection.
  • (16) It is understood Cameron and the Lib Dem leader have agreed to cool the coalition tensions that have boiled over into public spats – and there were signs yesterday that was having some effect after it was clear that Labour was making capital from the dispute.
  • (17) Padoan said the US's budget spat posed significant threats to the US and the global economy but said that Europe presented a larger challenge.
  • (18) However, after several years of improving relations and increasing trade, China and Japan have much to lose from a prolonged deterioration in ties, and will be wary of letting the spat get out of hand.
  • (19) Ahmadinejad has been drawn into a bruising power struggle with the conservatives, many of them his former supporters, and has mounted serious challenges to Khamenei, such as engaging in public spats with top-level officials.
  • (20) Former Netanyahu aide lambasts US ambassador in heated spat Read more “These provocative acts are bound to increase the growth of settler populations, further heighten tensions and undermine any prospects for a political road ahead,” Ban told a United Nations security council meeting on the Middle East.