O que significa war of words?

When I was still in college, my teachers would split the class into two big groups and have us debate over a certain topic. They said we'd have to defend the group's point of view regardless of our own opinions just to assure the debate would happen between the two opposing groups. 

I don't even have to say the debate would go on for a long time and sometimes not only would people defend their ideas but also be aggressive, defensive, angry. The debate would often turn into a war of words.

A war of words is an argument in which people or groups criticize and disagree with each other publicly and repeatedly for usually a long time. The thing is, I don't remember a single time the groups finally reached a middle ground. It was more about the war of words than a position of compromise at the end. That's all for now. Take care!