tiff

1 of 2

noun

: a petty quarrel

tiff

2 of 2

verb

tiffed; tiffing; tiffs

intransitive verb

: to have a petty quarrel

Examples of tiff in a Sentence

Noun got into a little tiff about what color sheets to buy for their bed Verb like any couple, they occasionally tiff, but it's never anything serious
Recent Examples on the Web
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Noun
The trade tiff has been accompanied by increasingly forceful rhetoric. Arick Wierson, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Apr. 2025 When asked about the trade adviser’s tangle with the Tesla CEO — a top ally to the president — the White House largely brushed off the tiff. Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 11 Apr. 2025 The trade war is objectively bad politics; in the last two days, the tariff tiff erased the entire gains Wall Street posted since Trump won in November. Philip Elliott, TIME, 5 Mar. 2025 Beijing, which has struggled to regain economic momentum amid a housing crisis and tepid consumer confidence, says escalating the trade tiff will worsen inflation for American consumers—a scenario Trump ruled out last month. Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 3 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for tiff

Word History

Etymology

Verb

origin unknown

First Known Use

Noun

1754, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1700, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tiff was in 1700

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Tiff.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tiff. Accessed 18 May. 2025.

Kids Definition

tiff

noun
ˈtif
: a minor quarrel

More from Merriam-Webster on tiff

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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