Let's Have a Pissing Contest

[sshg_ninja]

Hello all!

American here married to a Brit, but this particular question eludes him, so here I am.

Would a British person say "pissing contest" to mean a battle of wills with another person/thing?

For example: The Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the Department of Mysteries got into a jurisdictional pissing contest.

Any help is much

Comments

[duckodeath]

I don't remember it being used in The Thick of It, and if any UK source would use it, that would be the one!

[sshg_ninja]

Thank you! Do you think I could get away with using "dogfight" instead?

[laurielover1912]

If it was verbal it could maybe be called a 'slanging match' but that doesn't sound appropriate in this context. I really don't think 'pissing contest' can be used - it's not something I've ever come across in a Brit context.

You could say there was a lot of mud-slinging going on - that works for Brits and Americans and has a political dimension.

[sshg_ninja]

Thanks so much for the suggestions. What do you think about "dogfight" as an alternative?

[rosinarowantree]

I don't like dogfight for this - to me it still has a primary connotation of a fight between two planes, without the down-and-dirty sense there is in 'pissing contest'. Neither does 'battle of wits' or 'trial of strength'. For a sporting sense, you could refer to a ruck or a maul, which is upmarket compared to the image of a dogfight in the literal sense.

[sshg_ninja]

Showing my Americanism here - I'm not really sure what you mean by a ruck or a maul. How would I phrase that?

[ias]

I use it but then have many US firends so wouldn't trust myself given no one else here things it is British.

I def. wouldn't use jurisdictional dogfight as the first word sounds far to American and dogfight still resonates as WWII Battle of Britain rather than anything else.

'Turf war' would cover it.

[sam_t]

'Turf war' sounds like a good alternative to me.

[cangetmad]

I'd say either 'pissing contest' or 'dick-measuring', and I'm English-in-Scotland, never lived anywhere near the US. I do love swearing, though.