argue
To talk to someone in an angry way because you do not agree.
To speak to someone in an angry or heated way because of a disagreement.
To give reasons to show that your idea is right or another idea is wrong.
To present reasons or evidence to support or oppose an idea, action, or theory.
To try to make someone agree with you by giving reasons.
To try to change someone's opinion by giving them reasons to think differently.
- Base: argue
- 3rd Person Singular: argues
- Present Participle: arguing
- Past: argued
argue the toss
1Complain after decision made
To complain about or try to change a decision that is already final.
- The manager said no, so there's no point arguing the toss.
- He kept arguing the toss even after we explained everything.
argue with yourself
1Debate internally about choices
To think about two different choices and try to decide between them in your head.
- I spent hours arguing with myself about whether to quit.
- She argued with herself before making the call.
play devil's advocate
1argue against an idea to test it
to pretend to disagree with an idea, even if you agree with it, so that you and other people can test how strong the idea is
- I'm just playing devil's advocate here—what if we're wrong?
- Let me play devil’s advocate for a minute and question your assumptions.
- She played devil's advocate to see how strong his argument was.
- He likes to play devil’s advocate to make discussions more interesting.
- The lawyer played devil’s advocate to prepare her client for cross-examination.