pissing contest, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pissing contest n.

also pissing match, spitting contest

[fig. use of piss v. (1) + SE contest; the image of two small boys urinating against a wall, each attempting to aim the flow of urine higher; note cite 1967 for alleged coinage by Abraham Lincoln and thus pvb ‘Don’t get into a pissing contest/match with a skunk’]

1. (mainly US) any form of competition in which the participants are motivated more by the need to assert their superiority than by any desire to attain an accurate or positive conclusion.

1961		L. Schecter Roger Maris 85: ‘You don’t,’ Weiss said, ‘get into a spitting contest with a skunk’ That’s the way it got into the papers, anyway, although spitting wasn’t the word he used.
1967		R. Moore Country Team 247: ‘My advice to you, sir, [...] is the same that Abraham Lincoln gave to one of his cabinet members who was being bombarded by a particularly vitriolic critic: “Don't get into a pissing contest with a skunk!”’.
1973		P. Watters Investigating the FBI 182: DeFord replied, ‘I don’t want to say a damn thing about it. I don’t want to get in a pissing match with the civil-rights attorneys’.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 146: You guys seem to be running a pissing contest here.
1981		J. Kruse Red Omega 86: It would’ve been twenty cables—a pissing contest— ending with the Secretary of State turning chickenshit and informing the British.
1983		M.M. Thomas Someone Else’s Money 462: Her defeat was fodder for the chauvinists at the Stock Exchange Lunch Club; ‘It just goes to show,’ gloated the specialist in Seaco, ‘if you have to squat to piss, don't get in a pissing match’ .
1993		Labor Research Rev. 20-21 25: Make your struggle a community concern — not a labor-management pissing match.
1997		C.R. Ronai et al. Everyday Sexism in the Third Millennium 77: Finally, a third woman angrily compared the debate to a ‘pissing contest’.
2005		R. Butterman At Your Cervix 535: A pissing contest wouldn’t further my efforts to secure future employment.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 206: ‘I thought you were pushing it pretty hard with him’ [...] ‘That was a pissing contest, kid. Nothing more than that’.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 68: I think it’s just another form of a pissing match. My scars are bigger than yours, like that.
2016		Huffington Post 18 Oct. 🌐 [headline] James Gordon Rips Donald Trump for Turning the Election into a ‘Pissing Contest’.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] This is a pissing match between two sets of monkeys.
2018		G. Disher Kill Shot [ebook] If I’d had more cooperation from the Robbers, rather than this ongoing fucking pissing contest.
2019		M. Herron Joe Country [ebook] ‘Maybe we can get some actual collaboration, instead of indulging in pissing contests’.
2021		T. Macdonald on Twitter 1 July 🌐 State / Federal pissing contests are among the most consistent and consistently embarrassing features of Australian politics.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

2002

G. Pelecanos Hell to Pay 255: It was nothing. Just, you know, pissin’-contest stuff between men.