How to Use quarrelsome in a Sentence

quarrelsome

adjective
  • There are so many things going on that someone could become quarrelsome.
    — Magi Helena, oregonlive, 7 Dec. 2019
  • On the path back to Igloo Lake, the mosquitoes were more quarrelsome.
    — John Lahr, Esquire, 16 June 2016
  • That the world is a contradictory and quarrelsome place is hardly breaking news.
    — USA TODAY, 7 Feb. 2018
  • How to mold a lasting and resilient nation out of this quarrelsome collection of commonwealths?
    — Kevin Duchschere, Star Tribune, 14 May 2021
  • How did Marlowe find the space in his head, let alone in his days and nights, to compose his quarrelsome works, aiming them so squarely at the heavens and the gut?
    — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
  • In the previous three years alone, the police had responded to a dozen incidents featuring the quarrelsome man.
    — Photographs Todd Heisler, New York Times, 19 May 2024
  • Stereophonic could be called a workplace drama, a quarrelsome family play or even an extended hangout, as much a vibe as a story.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Both Trotsky and Paul get absorbed in quarrelsome dialectics and in point-scoring built around minute differences.
    — Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2026
  • If people become quarrelsome or negative, don’t take it personally.
    — Tribune Content Agency, oregonlive, 23 Mar. 2021
  • All arms come from coal and steel and integrated industries would stop Europe’s most quarrelsome countries waging war on one another.
    — Sara Stridsberg september 15, Literary Hub, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Park’s sense was that it had been historically applied to unusually quarrelsome women.
    — Robert Samuels, The New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2023
  • So, there was no number 6 on the reasons gold hasn’t rallied hard with inflation, but gold is a classic haven and the world is very quarrelsome at present, with the usual suspects stirring away.
    — Clem Chambers, Forbes, 26 Jan. 2022
  • The magisterium seems intact, even among the often quarrelsome American branch.
    — Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 9 May 2025
  • Paranoid, controlling, quarrelsome and rigid, LadyBird turns out to have a traumatic secret of her own.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 20 Feb. 2024
  • Chosen as heir by nobles over his elder female cousin Rhaenys (Eve Best), Viserys presides over a quarrelsome court.
    — Sean T. Collins, Rolling Stone, 21 Aug. 2022
  • These people are admittedly paranoid, contentious and quarrelsome.
    — Danit Lidor, WIRED, 13 Sep. 2002
  • Russian opposition figures abroad have historically been a quarrelsome bunch, and the current crop is no different.
    — Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, 7 Dec. 2022
  • Volatile, quarrelsome, dogmatic, and sure of his own brilliance, Reinhold outraged patrons, amassed huge debts, and turned his eldest son into an exhausted workhorse.
    — Jenny Uglow, The New York Review of Books, 4 July 2026
  • The toys, like the perpetually quarrelsome Woody and Buzz or Jessie the cowgirl, who now takes center stage, have seen their boy and girl owners grow up and leave them behind.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 June 2026
  • That’s the unwritten code of civility and compromise Virginia’s lawmakers have long said sets them apart from the quarrelsome mob in Congress.
    — Washington Post, 3 Aug. 2019
  • Council member Justin Bloyer said the council is taking steps to change its reputation as quarrelsome and dysfunctional.
    — Bob Shaw, Twin Cities, 20 Jan. 2017
  • This poses a real challenge for both employees and employers who might see productivity and morale tank if the negotiating process stretches on too long or becomes quarrelsome.
    — Amber Burton, Fortune, 14 Sep. 2022
  • The battlegrounds have also multiplied, from a few notoriously quarrelsome parent councils to traditionally peaceful spots around the city.
    — Troy Closson, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2024
  • The Skylight production is most effective at capturing family interplay, quarrelsome when boundaries are overstepped, fond when common ground is regained.
    — Daryl H. Miller, latimes.com, 30 Mar. 2018
  • To make headway, the task needs to be assigned to an official with the clout to compel collaboration among disparate and often quarrelsome national security bureaucracies.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 16 Mar. 2018
  • Not even Caplan, whose one-note portrayal of a quarrelsome congresswoman is enough to make one yearn for the subtleties and emotional shadings of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
    — Graham Hillard, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 7 Mar. 2025
  • Notoriously hot tempered, Berry quickly earned a reputation as a fearsome bandleader and business negotiator, as well as a quarrelsome character to be avoided.
    — Jeff Slate, Esquire, 19 Mar. 2017
  • And what’s most important — indeed the principal reason for protecting the existence of a noisy, quarrelsome, factious, muckraking free press in our republic — is accountability.
    — Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 23 Dec. 2025
  • The romantic pentagon’s members are quarrelsome, foolish, and discombobulated by the passage of time—characters often describe themselves as being a bore or a burden, or as having missed their moment.
    — Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
  • As recently as 2022, Pahlavi was trying to work within the often quarrelsome sphere of Iranian diaspora politics.
    — Azadeh Moaveni, New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'quarrelsome.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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