wrangle

views updated May 23 2018

wran·gle / ˈranggəl/ • n. a dispute or argument, typically one that is long and complicated: an insurance wrangle is holding up compensation payments.• v. 1. [intr.] have such a dispute or argument: [as n.] (wrangling) weeks of political wrangling. 2. [tr.] round up, herd, or take charge of (livestock): the horses were wrangled early.3. another term for wangle.

wrangle

views updated May 29 2018

wrangle dispute angrily or noisily. XIV (not common before XVI). prob. of LG. or Du. orig.; cf. LG., G. dial. wrangeln. See -LE3.
Hence wrangler (-ER1) disputant XVI; spec. one placed in the first class in the mathematical tripos at Cambridge university XVIII.

Wrangle

views updated May 29 2018

Wrangle

a noisy quarrel; a jangle.

Examples: wrangle of bells, 1873; of philosophersLipton, 1970; of the stages, 1839.

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