stalemate
/ˈsteɪɫˌmeɪt/
nouna situation where no argument can be settled or no one can win in a contest
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Examples
1. It's stalemate.
2. It's stalemate.
3. It's stalemate.
4. The jaw-to-jaw combat is at stalemate.
5. It's stalemate.
to stand firm
/stˈænd fˈɜːm/
verbto stick to one's opinions; to not move back
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Examples
1. What I expect to hear from HIM is Red Meat Campaign rhetoric from his COMFORT zone, to his BASE to get them fired up and ready to go, so that when he goes to CONGRESS and make the case they will be flooded with e-mails and Text Messages, facebook messages about staying for them, Stand Firm, and to the Border Next Day
stand-off
/stˈændˈɔf/
nouna situation in which reaching an agreement seems impossible
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Examples
1. But back at the government headquarters, the violent stand-off continued into the night.
2. Or are there no stand-offs on this.
3. Amid the presidential stand-off and shattered relations, there was another new turn of events.
4. It's a tense stand-off.
5. Gun owner John Joe Gray has held up his family on a ranch in Texas, in the longest stand-off in history, 15 years.
sticking point
/stˈɪkɪŋ pˈɔɪnt/
nouna subject or issue over which people disagree and therefore no progress can be made
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Examples
1. The theory still has its sticking points, though.
2. Now, a sticking point here may involve use of the word force.
3. Trade tariffs were a sticking point in the negotiations.
4. Trade tariffs were a sticking point in the negotiations.
5. We hit a sticking point.
stir
/ˈstɝ/
nouna situation where there is excitement, annoyance, or shock
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Examples
1. Gently stir the cocktail.
2. Stir the oats.
3. Stir the pot.
4. Stir the pot.
5. Stir the pot.
to stir up
/stˈɜːɹ ˈʌp/
verbto intentionally try to cause trouble or arguments
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Examples
1. They stir up trouble.
2. Stirring up our little town ♪
3. The Russian government stirs up pan-Slavic fervor in the Balkans.
4. These toxins stir up trouble in your gastrointestinal tract.
5. Few famous couples have stirred up as much drama as Brangelina .
stormy
/ˈstɔɹmi/
adjectiveinvolving bitter arguments and angry feelings
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Examples
1. A stormy sea has high volatility with big waves and toughs.
2. Now, these troopers are extra stormy, with black shoulder guards and a matte black patch over one side of each helmet.
3. Kindness and empathy can also calm those stormy waters.
4. You survived the New England stormy weather.
5. - It's a stormy fisher.
strife
/ˈstɹaɪf/
nounviolent disagreement between people
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Examples
1. There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet.
2. Have you relinquished all strife?
3. Religious strife plagued the Roman Empire of the Third Century AD.
4. Compounding these woes was political strife.
5. The fall of Galilee to Vespasian’s legionaries prompted more internal strife among the Jewish factions.
to struggle
/ˈstɹəɡəɫ/
verbto argue or compete with someone or something, particularly to get something specific
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Examples
1. I've struggled with suicide or suicidal thoughts.
2. His family struggled.
3. Most people struggle.
4. Their family really struggled financially.
5. Poverty, despair, struggle.
struggle
/ˈstɹəɡəɫ/
nouna contest or conflict in which people try to get something
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Examples
1. I've struggled with suicide or suicidal thoughts.
2. His family struggled.
3. Most people struggle.
4. Their family really struggled financially.
5. Poverty, despair, struggle.
the moral high ground
/ðə mˈɔːɹəl hˈaɪ ɡɹˈaʊnd/
phrasea claim that one has moral superiority over others
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Examples
1. They assured all drivers that they would pay all of their fines and took the moral high ground in public, asserting that they were not a taxi company and, therefore, not subject to regulatory provisions.
2. maybe acknowledging those things can be the moral high ground sometimes?
3. (Aside: when the Daily Mirror is taking the moral high ground over you, you know you might want to take a moment to reevaluate your decision making paradigm.)
4. I will understand if you think it was complete garbage, but I feel like they did that for him just to make him feel like he did have the moral high ground like to complicate his character so that he had his own secrets.
5. So my question is, for these trolls, do you want our silence, which we often construe as ignoring something and taking the moral high ground because we don't want to feed the trolls?
to take issue with
/tˈeɪk ˈɪʃuː wɪð/
phraseto argue or disagree with someone over something
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Examples
1. While few would dispute the benefits of real world interactions and experiential education, Odgers does take issue with the popular narrative that an uptick in tech usage is making kids more anxious and less social.
2. So while we may take issue with how a law is applied, we much more rarely ask whether the laws themselves are just or not.
3. So, uh, some physicists take issue with that.
4. And it seems striking that she didn't have any follow ups on claims we made about the Veil, that you would hope a medical correspondent would immediately take issue with.
5. But I'm not gonna take issue with that.
to take someone/something to the mat
/tˈeɪk sˈʌmwʌn slˈæʃ sˈʌmθɪŋ tə ðə mˈæt/
phraseto engage in a quarrel or argument with someone or something
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Examples
1. We're able to take someone with absolutely no pistol or firearms experience and make them quite good shooters and successful through the program.
2. If you have people who vary in their familiarity with the gadget, such as a cell phone and you ask them to estimate how long it will take someone else to learn how to use the cellphone.
3. If you are building a pipeline that shuttles them from one place to another and you're doing that by claiming eminent domain so that you can take someone else's property, you better be pretty sure that you can do it without getting sued.
4. If it is way out of our way to take someone to the airport.
5. That is so rude to take someone else's bobble head.
tangle
/ˈtæŋɡəɫ/
nouna disagreement, fight, or conflict
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Examples
1. Tangled in this underbrush.
2. Likely, our space intruder would tangle the biggest planet in the system.
3. ♫ ♫ Hella split-ends, and my hair so tangled!
4. Rapunzely Tangled.
5. - Tangled.
to tangle with
/tˈæŋɡəl wɪð/
verbto engage in a fight or argument with someone or something
Examples
to tear apart
/tˌɛɹ ɐpˈɑːɹt/
verbto separate or destroy by causing serious arguments in a country, organization, or group
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Examples
1. Tom’s left arm has been torn apart in a cotton gin.
2. Lives and families were torn apart.
3. Many families have been torn apart.
4. Herds of wild animals can tear apart your house.
5. Today, we are tearing apart this room.
the gloves are off
/ðə ɡlˈʌvz ɑːɹ ˈɔf/
phrasesaid to mean something is done without caring if someone gets offended or upset
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Examples
1. The gloves are off, my fork's in hand, and I'm ready to go all the way.
2. Look, looks like the gloves are off.
3. The gloves are off.
4. The first three - okay - we're talking about getting ready for the competition, looking for a fight, starting a fight, when the gloves are off, like Mr. E?
5. So, when the gloves are off, it means the fight has started and the rules don't count, we're just going straight into combat.
thorny
/ˈθɔɹni/
adjectivecausing problem or difficulty
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Examples
1. Problems are too complex, too hard, too sticky, too thorny.
2. What are the thorny problems?
3. Thorny issues are subjects that are difficult deal with.
4. Thorny issues are subjects that are difficult deal with.
5. Was it all arcane, thorny grammatical nitpicks?
tiff
/ˈtɪf/
nouna small argument between two people who love each other or are close friends
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Examples
1. TIFF I find works best.
2. and I have a TIFF image here on the desktop.
3. - Tiff, Tiff you already told me the answer.
4. - Tiff, Tiff you already told me the answer.
5. Tiff, are you wrecking the joint?
troublemaker
/ˈtɹəbəɫˌmeɪkɝ/
nounsomeone with a tendency to cause difficulty, particularly by encouraging others to question those in authority
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Examples
1. Here comes troublemaker.
2. Troublemaker, close your eyes.
3. - Did you claim troublemaker?
4. These are troublemakers.
5. they're troublemakers.
turbulence
/ˈtɝbjəɫəns/
nouna state of instability, disorder, or conflict
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Examples
1. Turbulence is a common thing in aviation.
2. Turbulence is airplane language for irregular air waves.
3. What exactly is turbulence?
4. Turbulence is disturbances in airflow.
5. Take turbulence into account.
turbulent
/ˈtɝbjəɫənt/
adjectivemarked with instability, argument, disorder, or conflict
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Examples
1. Climate prediction, on the other hand, is far less turbulent.
2. Times were TURBULENT.
3. Close to the Sun, the solar wind looks far more turbulent.
4. Did the ocean become turbulent?
5. Turbulent is the opposite of calm, turbulent, not calm.
turf war
/tˈɜːf wˈɔːɹ/
nouna violent fight or argument between rivals over the control of a specific area or activity
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Examples
1. For the political parties, it's a massive turf war.
2. In recent months, turf wars have spiked among rival Trinitario factions.
3. This was a turf war!
4. It's a turf war! -
5. This is now a turf war.
tussle
/ˈtəsəɫ/
nouna fight, struggle, or argument, particularly to get something
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Examples
1. They tussle, and Jud falls on his own knife.
2. And we got in a tussle.
3. That little side yard - You got in a tussle?
4. And the big tussle is between Eisenhower and Taft.
5. Toothbrushing tussles?
to tussle
/ˈtəsəɫ/
verbto struggle or fight with someone, particularly to get something
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Examples
1. They tussle, and Jud falls on his own knife.
2. And we got in a tussle.
3. That little side yard - You got in a tussle?
4. And the big tussle is between Eisenhower and Taft.
5. Toothbrushing tussles?
unbridgeable
/ʌnbɹˈɪdʒəbəl/
adjective(of a difference between people or their ideas) unable to be closed or made smaller because of being major
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Examples
1. And in many ways, it's an unbridgeable chasm.
2. Working with governments, foundations, corporations, families, to uncover the tools and techniques that allow us to talk when it feels like the divide is unbridgeable.
under protest
/ˌʌndɚ pɹˈoʊtɛst/
phrasereluctantly
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Examples
1. The flight it was destroyed in was made under protest as Commander Lansdowne knew that late Summer weather in Ohio often had weather conditions unsuitable for flying an airship through.
2. I'm gonna play this game under protest.
3. He was brought aboard the Enterprise, under protest from Picard, and nursed back to health.
4. So this shot is being taken under protest.
to unlike
/ənˈɫaɪk/
verbto show that one no longer likes an online post or comment by clicking on a specific icon
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Examples
1. And unlike Bitcoins rally in 2017, which saw the price rise exponentially and then plummet.
2. Unlike most accidents, car crashes offer little warning.
3. However, unlike live in nannies, au pairs have no guaranteed sick days or federal holidays.
4. This place is unlike anywhere else in the US.
5. Unlike normal red cells which are pliant, sickle cells are rigid and also sticky.
unpleasantness
/ənˈpɫɛzəntnəs/
noununfriendliness or disagreements between individuals
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Examples
1. I was shocked by his unpleasantness.
2. Back then, life was still recovering from the unpleasantness of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, which wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs.
3. Still, this unpleasantness aside, their family life was relatively normal.
4. There will probably be some small unpleasantness.
5. All of these involved unpleasantness and suffering.
unsettled
/ənˈsɛtəɫd/
adjective(of a disagreement, question, etc.) not resolved yet
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Examples
1. Today, Porfirio Diaz’s reputation is still unsettled.
2. As a result, Cleopatra’s early years were unsettled.
3. It's simply unsettled.
4. It's unsettled.
5. My stomach was so unsettled.
unsympathetic
/ənˌsɪmpəˈθɛtɪk/
adjectiveunwilling to support an action, idea, etc.; disagreeing with something
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Examples
1. But mock trials also show sympathetic defendants get more non-guilty verdicts and unsympathetic defendants get more guilty verdicts in front of jurors who were explicitly told about nullification compared to those who weren't.
2. So, Ben is also unsympathetic we're learning.
3. Burnie: We are unsympathetic.
4. Criminal prosecutions by the federal government for civil rights violations in the south were fraught with problems, most notably all-white juries, deeply unsympathetic to civil rights cases.
5. So Pound clearly is a very unsympathetic human being in some ways.
unsympathetically
/ʌnsˌɪmpəθˈɛɾɪkli/
adverbin a manner that is unkind; without compassion
Examples
uproar
/ˈəˌpɹɔɹ/
nouna situation where there is a lot of noise caused by upset or angry people
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Examples
1. Now this caused a huge uproar.
2. But the uproar highlighted other differences between the men's and women's tournaments, including less reliable COVID testing and less online promotion for the women.
3. This event sparked uproar across the nation, but it particularly resonated with young Jack Lucas.
4. There was uproar.
5. The place is in an uproar right now.
vendetta
/vɛnˈdɛtə/
nouna prolonged and violent argument between two families or groups in which members of each side make attempts to murder the members of the opposing side in retaliation for things that occurred in the past
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Examples
1. The vendetta ride ended with a bang in Iron Springs in the Whetstone Mountains.
2. These days the iconic design is perhaps more recognizable from V for Vendetta.
3. So he has a vendetta.
4. The internet has a vendetta against McDonald's chicken McNuggets.
5. What is everybody's vendetta against celery?
to wade in
/wˈeɪd ˈɪn/
verbto aggressively become involved in a fight, argument, etc. without consideration
Examples
to wade into
/wˈeɪd ˌɪntʊ/
verbto engage in an argument, discussion, etc. forcefully or aggressively without consideration
Examples
war of words
/wˈɔːɹ ʌv wˈɜːdz/
phrasea long argument between people
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Examples
1. President Trump and North Korea escalate the war of words, lobbing new threats and sending new tweets.
2. Well, the shooting has stopped, but the war of words goes on.
3. And that the challenge dissipated rather quickly into a war of words.
4. A minor war of words between the two teams climaxed When Cincinnati's Brandon Phillips dropped the verbal equivalent of a nuclear bomb.
5. The war of words got people all excited for a late November showdown between the Blazers and the struggling Rockets, but just like Scottie predicted, nothing came of it.
who says
/hˌuː sˈɛz/
phraseused to express disagreement with an opinion or statement
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Examples
1. I have here a young woman who says that she has met you and your brother before.
2. You know, I'm someone who says I'm gonna make this and that video and then I don't.
3. It's sort of like the old saw about the executive who who says, well, half the money I spent on advertising is wasted.
4. So Odysseus gets the heads up from Circe, who says just sail closer to Scylla.
5. So, then there’s contemporary Australian moral philosopher Peter Singer, who says that the key to personhood is sentience, the ability to feel pleasure and pain.
with (all due / ) respect
/wɪð ˈɔːl dˈuː ɹɪspˈɛkt/
phraseused to politely express complete disagreement
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Examples
1. Nyle DiMarco is in it and another guy who I don't know, but already, I can just say that, with all due respect, I'm really kind of over seeing the two same people in mainstream TV over and over again.
2. But you can still treat that person with respect.
3. And that was with respect to employment programs, federal employment programs, but then, really sort of expanded upon and put into place by President Johnson and the idea was really to put some teeth into some civil rights laws and say,
4. Over the past decade or so, with respect to the exodus of California, markets like Phenix and Las Vegas and Reno and Salt Lake City have been big beneficiaries.
5. It solves the problems that I had with respect to investing.
to worst
/ˈwɝst/
verbto defeat someone in a contest, argument, or fight
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Examples
1. oh my god torture in 18th century Europe was THE WORST.
2. James: ANNA, RANK THESE DESIGNERS FROM BEST TO WORST.
3. the worst possible advice to give people during this time.
4. At worst, they look like driftwood on water.
5. At worst, they can use shady fundraising methods for tax breaks and good PR.
to wrangle
/ˈɹæŋɡəɫ/
verbto have a prolonged and complicated argument
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Examples
1. So I'm wrangling the car.
2. Just wonderful actors and the way he, Bob Riggle would just essentially wrangle cats.
3. He wrangles alligators on his six pack.
4. So, there was wrangling over the definition.
5. Wrangle the cat into an unoccupied room by wrapping it in a heavy blanket.
wrangle
/ˈɹæŋɡəɫ/
nouna prolonged and complicated argument
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Examples
1. So I'm wrangling the car.
2. Just wonderful actors and the way he, Bob Riggle would just essentially wrangle cats.
3. He wrangles alligators on his six pack.
4. So, there was wrangling over the definition.
5. Wrangle the cat into an unoccupied room by wrapping it in a heavy blanket.
wrangling
/ˈɹæŋɡəɫɪŋ/, /ˈɹæŋɡɫɪŋ/
nouninvolvement in a prolonged and complicated argument
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Examples
1. Negotiators worked through the night, with last-minute wrangling over fishing rights in Britain's coastal waters.
2. After many years of wrangling and infighting and some turf battles between the Library of Congress and National Archives, decision finally gets made.
3. It's been a Regulatory Odyssey that included a federal rejection in 2016 and ongoing wrangling with several state agencies.
4. If you're not clear about that, there's going to be ambiguities later, which will involve legal wrangling and dissatisfaction.
5. Well, certainly for one thing, underneath all of the disagreement and the wrangling and the arguing, there was some consensus.
yeah, right
/jˈɛh ɹˈaɪt/
interjectionused to express disagreement with or disbelief at a statement
Examples
the battle lines are drawn
/ðə bˈæɾəl lˈaɪnz ɑːɹ dɹˈɔːn/
phraseused to say that people have chosen which side they are going to support in an upcoming contest or argument
Examples