ALTERCATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does altercation mean? 

• ALTERCATION (noun)
  The noun ALTERCATION has 1 sense:

1. noisy quarrel

  Familiarity information: ALTERCATION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALTERCATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Noisy quarrel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

affray; altercation; fracas

Hypernyms ("altercation" is a kind of...):

dustup; quarrel; row; run-in; words; wrangle (an angry dispute)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "altercation"):

batrachomyomachia (a silly altercation)

 Context examples 

The proceedings might have opened by an impromptu bye-battle between the indignant cockney and the gentleman from Bristol, but a prolonged roar of applause broke in upon their altercation.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You then, as I understand, followed her home and saw through the window an altercation between her husband and her, in which she doubtless cast his conduct to you in his teeth.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Fully half-an-hour went by, and then I saw Johnson and Louis in some sort of altercation.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There was a little altercation between her and Steerforth about a cast of the dice at backgammon—when I thought her, for one moment, in a storm of rage; and then I saw it start forth like the old writing on the wall.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The deed thoroughly answered: a source of domestic altercation was entirely done away, and it was the means of opening Susan's heart to her, and giving her something more to love and be interested in.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The morning had been a quiet morning enough—all except the brief scene with the lunatic: the transaction in the church had not been noisy; there was no explosion of passion, no loud altercation, no dispute, no defiance or challenge, no tears, no sobs: a few words had been spoken, a calmly pronounced objection to the marriage made; some stern, short questions put by Mr. Rochester; answers, explanations given, evidence adduced; an open admission of the truth had been uttered by my master; then the living proof had been seen; the intruders were gone, and all was over.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The tea which had been ordered was brought up at the end of ten minutes; but the maid, as she approached the door, was surprised to hear the voices of her master and mistress in furious altercation.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)