[f. L. altercāt- ppl. stem of altercā-ri to dispute with another, wrangle, f. alter another.] To dispute vehemently, warmly or angrily; to contend in wordy warfare; to wrangle.
1530. Palsgr., 421/1. I altercate, I moultiply langage or stryve in wordes.
1632. Quarles, Div. Fancies, I. xl. Never fight Nor wrangle more, nor altercate agin.
1778. B. Lincoln, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), II. 241. The hard necessity of altercating with the civil power.
1810. Ann. Reg., 333/2. To altercate with the Landlady about some threepence or fourpence.
1837. Lytton, Athens, II. 208. It becomes us not … to altercate on the localities of the battle.
