turf war
nounUS /ˈtɚf woɹ/ · UK /ˈtɜːf wɔː/
Etymology The phrase may have originated as a reference to the game of American football where two teams confront each other on a field of grass or turf.
1
A dispute over territory between rival gangs.
2
Idiomatic A fight or confrontation between two divisions or parties for access to resources or capital.
- It's a fascinating distinction, and one that also has the neat effect of moving the debate on from the contentious territory of the SF/litfic turfwar into that of value-neutral literary theory.2014 July 18, Thomas Christie, Notional Identities: Ideology, Genre and National Identity in Popular Scottish Fiction Since the Seventies, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 202: