chicaner
French, verb/ʃi.ka.ne/
chicaner is spelled C-H-I-C-A-N-E-R (8 letters) and appears about once in every 4 million words in written French, the 68,913th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Chicaner is a French verb meaning “to get (someone) into an argument” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Soulever, dans un procès, un point mineur de droit pour embrouiller l’affaire”.
What does chicaner mean in English?
verb
- 1
to get (someone) into an argument
- 2
to quibble, squabble (to complain or argue in a trivial or petty manner)
C'est inutile de se chicaner.
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Soulever, dans un procès, un point mineur de droit pour embrouiller l’affaire. 2. Créer des difficultés. 3. Serrer le vent le plus près possible, comme en lui disputant, parce qu’il est défavorable, une pleine action sur les voiles. 4. Se servir de subtilités captieuses, contester sans fondement, en quelque matière que ce soit.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of chicaner
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- chicanant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- chicané participle past
- chicane first-person indicative present
- chicanes indicative present second-person
- chicanons first-person indicative plural
- chicanez indicative plural present
- chicanent indicative plural present
- chicanais first-person imperfect indicative
- chicanait imperfect indicative singular
- chicanions first-person imperfect indicative
- chicaniez imperfect indicative plural
- chicanaient imperfect indicative plural
- chicanai first-person historic indicative
- chicanas historic indicative past
- chicana historic indicative past
- chicanâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce chicaner?
- /ʃi.ka.ne/
- \ʃi.ka.ne\
- [ʃi.ka.ne]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to chicaner
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is chicaner in French?
chicaner appears about once in every 4 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).