feuding
Locked in conflict
Feuding describes an ongoing bitter conflict between people, families, or groups, marked by mutual hostility and often cycles of retaliation.
The word evokes long-standing grudges rather than single disputes: feuding neighbors, feuding factions within the party.
Family feuds—like the legendary Hatfields and McCoys—can span generations.
They've been feuding for years over the property line.
Prolonged retaliatory conflict
- animosityActive, bitter hostility
- resentmentPersistent bitter displeasure
- bitternessSharp, unpleasant taste or feeling
- enmityBitter, lasting ill will
ill-will · grievance · estrangement · alienation · acrimony · spite · malice · antipathy
Punishing a wrongdoer
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
- retributionPunishment for wrongdoing
- reprisalPunitive action in return
- vendettaProlonged retaliatory conflict
tit-for-tat · bloodshed · cycle · escalation · counterattack · avenge · recompense · reciprocal
Angry verbal dispute
- disputeVerbal clash over differences
- clashViolent disagreement or collision
- altercationHeated verbal dispute
- squabbleTrivial noisy argument
bickering · wrangling · spat · row · falling-out · confrontation · hostilities · skirmish
Verona's feuding clan
- clansRelated family groups
- dynasticOf successive rulers
- LancasterEnglish dynasty, fifteenth century
- YorkHistoric English city
Capulets · Borgia · Medici · tribal · ancestral · highland · Corsican · Sicilian
vendetta
Prolonged retaliatory conflict
- animosityActive, bitter hostility
- resentmentPersistent bitter displeasure
- bitternessSharp, unpleasant taste or feeling
enmity · ill-will · grievance · estrangement · alienation · acrimony · spite · malice · antipathy · discord
revenge
Punishing a wrongdoer
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
- retributionPunishment for wrongdoing
- reprisalPunitive action in return
vendetta · tit-for-tat · bloodshed · cycle · escalation · counterattack · avenge · recompense · reciprocal · ongoing
quarrel
Angry verbal dispute
- disputeVerbal clash over differences
- clashViolent disagreement or collision
- altercationHeated verbal dispute
squabble · bickering · wrangling · spat · row · falling-out · confrontation · hostilities · skirmish · fighting
Montagues
Verona's feuding clan
Capulets · York · Borgia · Medici · tribal · ancestral · highland · Corsican · Sicilian · warlords
competition
Struggle for supremacy
- oppositionActive resistance or dissent
- neighborsThose dwelling nearby
- familiesRelated people living together
factions · brothers · siblings · cousins · kinfolk · business · territorial · turf · boundary · property
- Redneckredneck, hillbilly, hick, yokel, bumpkin
- discorddiscord, Discord, dissonance, discordance, dissonant
- hostile attitudeshostile, aggressive, combative, belligerent, adversarial
- conflictclash, fight, war, battle, dispute
- argumentsargument, arguing, disagreement, bickering, dispute
- divisiondivision, divide, divided, dividing, split
feudingreconciled
Restored to harmony
reconciling · harmonious · cooperating · allied · friendly
feudingreconciled
Restored to harmony
friendly · amicable · making peace · cordial · forgiving
- feuding familiesRelated groups in prolonged conflict