Paul had known writers who found it impossible to write after so much as a minor marital spat, and he himself usually found it impossible to write when upset.

It began with a minor spat between Brown and Stephon Marbury, which gave way to a tiff between Brown and Trevor Ariza and a front-office spanking of Jerome James.

This is a purely local affair, a minor spat.

His sympathies towards the Czech People was responsible for a minor diplomatic spat between Austria-Hungary and the German Empire when the Prussian government deported some of its migrant Czech and Polish workers in 1899.

But when neighbors asked for his help in a minor spat with Supervisor Paul J. Feiner over a proposed tent sale by a local merchant, everything changed.

The dispute began with a minor personal spat in early May.

There was a minor spat when Lori tried to insist that she be allowed to go on her own.

If it's a minor spat, you tuck it away until you see how things are going to shake down.

But it's when rows repeat themselves without being resolved, when you have minor spats for no obvious reason, or when rows leave you feeling tense, angry and sick, that alarm bells should ring.

It is barely six months since Amsterdam imposed a duty on our two organisations to work together; we have been sizing each other up, we have had a few minor spats, but we need to work effectively together.