Infighting

noun, verb

noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Fighting or quarreling among the members of a single group or side. countable, uncountable

    "[…] the economic and financial mismanagement of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government and chronic infighting within the regime have contributed to the economic chaos […]"

  2. 2
    boxing at close quarters wordnet
  3. 3
    Fighting with one's opponent closer than arm's length. countable, uncountable

    "Tate predicted that Wills, famed for infighting, would have to change his tactics against Firpo to avoid being knocked "very loose.""

  4. 4
    conflict between members of the same organization (usually concealed from outsiders) wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of infight form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
aggressivenessbellicositybelligerencebickeringboutboxing

Example

More examples

"Stop this infighting! I took you in when no one else would."

Etymology

From in- + fighting. Compare Middle English infighten (“to attack”), Old English infiht (“infighting”).

Related phrases

circular firing squad

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