cizañar

To sow discord — deliberately cause conflict or mistrust between people. Closely tied to the noun cizaña (a weed that looks like wheat), from the biblical parable of the wheat and the tares, which is also the source of the very common fixed expression meter/sembrar cizaña (to stir up trouble between people).

• No sé por qué siempre trata de cizañar entre los hermanos. — I don't know why he's always trying to sow discord between the siblings.
• Alguien cizañó y ahora ya no se hablan. — Someone stirred up trouble and now they're not speaking.
• Basta de cizañar, aquí nadie te ha hecho nada. — Stop stirring up trouble, nobody here has done anything to you.

In everyday speech, the fixed expression meter/sembrar cizaña (using the noun) is far more common than the plain verb cizañar — a learner is more likely to hear one of those than this verb on its own.

Often confused with enemistar.

• expression Meter/sembrar cizaña — Common fixed Spanish expression for sowing discord between people, traced to the biblical Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30), where cizaña is the weed sown among good wheat by an enemy.