Argy-bargy

//ˈɑɹdʒiˌbɑɹdʒi// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A noisy disagreement, often with some fighting UK, countable, uncountable

    "There was a wee bit of an argy-bargy over the dodgy matter."

  2. 2
    a verbal dispute; a wrangling argument wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To argue. UK

    "Ten minutes at the least did she stand at the door argy-bargying with that man."

Synonyms

All synonyms
dissonancepalaveradoaltercationargle-bargleargle-bargle

Example

More examples

"There was a wee bit of an argy-bargy over the dodgy matter."

Etymology

From Scots, variant of argle-bargle, documented since 1822, presumably due to replacement of + -le (“frequentative”) with + -y (“diminutive”), documented since 1857, but without effect on the meaning.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.