fighting words

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Idioms and Phrases

A statement bound to start a quarrel or fight. It is often expressed as them's fighting words , as in You say your father's smarter than mine? Them's fighting words . The ungrammatical use of them's for “those are” emphasizes the folksy tone of this colloquialism, first recorded in Ring Lardner's Gullible's Travels (1917).

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Example Sentences

Among these are obscenity, defamation, fighting words, express incitement to unlawful conduct, and threats.

From The Daily Beast

Fighting words like those that propelled his team to the top of the industry, but it looks like that drive might have been sapped.

From The Daily Beast

Cruz, who certainly considers himself Hispanic, had fighting words in response.

From The Daily Beast

Those are fighting words in a nearly half-Latino city where Tex-Mex restaurants outnumber all others.

From The Daily Beast

Obviously, a federal judge so inclined could very easily find that the offensive name constitutes fighting words or slander.

From The Daily Beast

He knew that even knuckling down, and changing from man to worm to take back his fighting words, couldn't do any good.

From Project Gutenberg

Word of the Day

April 25, 2024firkin

[fur-kin ]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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