▪ I. wrangle, n.
(ˈræŋg(ə)l)
[f. next.]
1. An angry dispute or noisy quarrel; an altercation or bitter disputation. Also fig.
| 1547 Latimer in Foxe A. & M. (1563) 1350/2 Or els he had neuer come into this wrangle for his own goods with your brother. 1611 Cotgr., Noise, brabble,..wrangle, squabble. 1673 Essex Papers (Camden) I. 92 [This] animated all those persons who were mutinous & discontented..to raise wrangles & cavills at what ever I did. 1732 Swift Consid. Two Bills Wks. 1841 II. 225/1 An infinite number of wrangles and litigious suits in the spiritual courts. 1779 G. Keate Sketches fr. Nat. (ed. 2) II. 72 When discord agitated the assembly of the gods, and their wrangles had made a bear-garden of Olympus. 1787 Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 335 The complicated wrangles of this continent. 1839 T. Mitchell Frogs of Aristoph. p. cvi, Preferring the songs of Colonean nightingales to the wrangles of the stage. 1859 Holland Gold Foil xxiv. 279 The disgraceful wrangles of the religious newspapers. 1874 Green Short Hist. iv. §2 (1882) 171 Each..had to be extorted after a long wrangle between the borough and the officers. |
| attrib. 1602 Parsons Warn-word to Sir F. Hastings 22 The arrival of O.E., his wrangle-word. Ibid. 26 This pedling marchant comming later to the faire with his wrangle-word. |
| transf. and fig. 1866 G. A. Lawrence Sans Merci II. 235 There are days when [the horse]..will jump only on compulsion; but he has to deal with sharp spurs and hands of iron; and he has never once got much the best of a wrangle. 1931 Blunden To Themis 22 Rumour multiplies the wrangle of wheels and clash of hoofs abroad. |
† 2. a. A disputatious answer or argument.
b. A controversy.
Obs.| 1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Love 21 b, To the fourme of wordes he hath formed a wrangle, the matter he graunteth belike to be true. 1752 Law Spirit of Love i. (1766) 1 Your Objections rather tend to stir up the Powers of Love, than the Wrangle of a rational Debate. |
3. Without article: The action of wrangling; angry altercation or argument; noisy dispute or contention.
| a 1797 H. Walpole Mem. Geo. III (1845) III. iii. 81 From this dialogue the assembly fell to wrangle, and broke up quarrelling. 1824 Byron Juan xv. xci, None can hate So much as I do any kind of wrangle. 1834 Lady Granville Lett. (1894) II. 159 They are just well and ill enough together to turn the stream of wrangle into a new channel. 1877 Talmage Serm. 255 The Book of Job has been the subject of unbounded theological wrangle. |
▪ II. wrangle, v. (
ˈræŋg(ə)l)
Also 7–8
rangle.
[Cf. LG. wrangeln, MHG. rangelen, frequentative f. rangen (= MLG. and LG. wrangen) to struggle, wrestle, make uproar, related to ringen: see wring v.] 1. a. intr. To dispute angrily; to argue noisily or vehemently; to altercate, contend; to bicker.
| 1377 [see wrangling vbl. n.]. 1552 Elyot, Altercor, to contende with wordes,..to wrangle. 1582 N.T. (Rhem.) 2 Tim. ii. 24 The servant of the Lord must not wrangle. 1582 Mulcaster Elementarie i. (1925) 83 The contrarie to right wold be soon espied, howsoeuer it [sc. the tongue] wrangle. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Humility iv, Here it is For which ye wrangle. 1653 Walton Angler 211 None do here Use to swear, Oathes do fray Fish away,..Fishes must not rangle. 1704 Prior Let. to M. Boileau Despreaux 192 With too much Heat, We sometimes wrangle, when We should debate. 1743 Fielding J. Wild i. viii, First secure what share you can before you wrangle for the rest. 1774 Goldsm. Retal. 55 Now wrangling and grumbling to keep up the ball. 1847 James Convict iii, Sometimes they laughed and wrangled good-humouredly enough. 1867 [T. Wright] Some Habits Working Classes 124 Even in cases in which no premeditated resolve to wrangle exists, wrangles often occur. 1879 Dixon Windsor I. iii. 22 While his Norman lords were wrangling. |
b. Const.
about,
against,
anent,
over, and
esp. with (a person).
| c 1395 Plowman's Tale ii. 526 Why cleimen they wholy his powere, And wranglen ayenst al his hests? c 1400 Langland's P. Pl. C. xvii. 80 Þaugh couetyce wolde with þe poure wraxle [Camb. MS. wrangle] Þei mai nat come togederis. a 1553 Udall Royster D. v. ii. (Arb.) 80 Certaine men with you haue wrangled About the promise of mariage by you to them made. 1596 Bell Surv. Popery ii. ii. 194 Howsoeuer you wrangle about your formall succession. 1609 Dekker Gull's Horn-bk. i. 6 Did man..come wrangling into the world, about no better matters? 1650 W. D. tr. Comenius' Gate Lang. Unl. §795 They wrangle anent..that universal and present remedie, whether it bee to bee had or no. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 353 Quarrelling and wrangling about their wealth. 1746 Ld. Hardwicke in Harris Life (1847) II. 290 Wrangling about trifles, they lose great objects. 1816 Scott Antiq. xi, They sometimes wrangle with her for an hour together under my study window. 1859 Jephson Brittany i. 3 While rival farmers wrangle over rates and road-making. 1904 Verney Memoirs II. 135 [They] were still wrangling with his mother and his many creditors. |
| fig. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iv. 144 Mens Natures wrangle with inferiour things. 1614 J. Cooke Greene's Tu Quoque K 2 b, Let vs no longer wrangle with our Wittes, Or dally with our Fortunes. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 207 The windes favorable, and the seas composed; but anon they began to wrangle and we to suffer. |
| transf. 1648 Crashaw Delights Muses, Musicks Duell 43 A nightingale..In controverting warbles evenly shar'd, With her sweet selfe shee wrangles. |
c. To make a noise suggestive of or comparable to wrangling; to jangle.
| 1816 L. Hunt Rimini i. 178 The golden bits keep wrangling as they go. 1873 Longfellow M. Angelo i. ii. ad fin., Low and loud the bells..Jangle and wrangle in their airy towers. |
2. To argue or debate; to engage in controversy; formerly also, to dispute or discuss publicly as at a university, for or against a thesis, etc. Freq.
const. about,
over,
upon,
with. Also with clause (
quots. a 1586, 1586).
| 1570 Drant Serm. C iij b, Hence wrangle the Iesuistes, hence wrastle the Sorbonistes. a 1586 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 41 So must they bee content little to mooue: sauing wrangling, whether Vertue bee the chiefe, or the onely good. 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretorie ii. (1595) 46, I must wrangle whie you stole awaie Toms bread and butter. 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. xvii. (1627) 208 In wrangling about words, not disputing to the purpose, and to the point. 1638 R. Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II) 182 Being resolved..to forsake my own [opinion], if any man will wrangle with me for it. 1665 J. Buck in Peacock Stat. Cambridge (1841) App. B. p. lxxii, The Commencers and their Sophisters are disputing and wrangling there until the clock strikes 5. 1732 Pope Ess. Man i. 49 All the question (wrangle e'er so long) Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong? 1773 Ld. Monboddo Language (1774) I. i. viii. 108 About which we see men wrangle and dispute without end. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 4 When..few [were ready] to write or wrangle for their creed. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiii. III. 365 The factions of the Parliament House, awe-struck by the common danger, forgot to wrangle. 1877 Field Lakes of Killarney to Golden Horn 75 For this reason..the Assembly wrangles over unimportant matters. |
| transf. a 1608 in Davison Poet. Rhapsody (1621) 102 Tell wit how much it wrangles In tickle points of nicenesse. 1858 H. Bushnell Serm. for New Life vii. (1861) 93 The mind that judges God..stumbles, complains, wrangles, and finds no issue to its labour. |
3. trans. † a. With
out: To argue out (a case, dispute, etc.); to contest or dispute contentiously to an end or issue.
Obs.| 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. iv. vi, If I make 'hem not wrangle out this case to his no comfort. 1632 Brome North. Lass v. ix, While they wrangle out their cause, let vs agree. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. iii. 184 If he could but stiffly wrangle out a vexatious dispute. 1728 [De Foe] Street-Robberies 42 The poor Captain was left to wrangle it out with the People of the House. |
b. In
pass. To be argued or debated.
| c 1734 North Ld. Kpr. Guilford (1742) 165 And so it was wrangled off and on till the Session ended. |
c. To utter wranglingly.
rare—1.
| 1760 Sterne Tr. Shandy iii. xxxviii, All that had been wrote or wrangled thereupon in the schools and porticoes of the learned. |
4. To get (something)
out of a person by bargaining; to obtain by wrangling.
| 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iii. 75 We wrangled out of the King ten quarters of Corne for a copper Kettell. 1934 in Webster. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 31 Jan. 1/3 The pall of snowdrifts and ice would have impeded reinforcements' marching even if Arnold had been able to wrangle help from American Brig. Gen. David Wooster, a procrastinator who then occupied Montreal. |
5. a. To influence or persuade (a person) by wrangling or contention; to argue
out of a possession, etc., or
in to some state.
| 1633 Burroughs Sov. Brit. Seas (1651) 4 Princes..disdaining to bee wrangled out of the ancient rights and regalities. 1658 Bramhall Consecr. Bps. viii. 182 To wrangle the Church of England out of a good possession. a 1659 Bp. Browning Serm. (1674) I. xii. 165 Will a man..be wrangled out of his Evidences? 1675 Brooks Gold. Key Wks. 1867 V. 525 All the devils in hell shall never wrangle a believer out of his heavenly inheritance. 1705 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 70 The Latter would have wrangled 'em out of it. 1847 Mrs. Gore Castles in Air viii, Moral philosophy [has] wrangled the world in and out of its senses. |
b. To force or drive
out of a place by wrangling.
| 1693 C. Mather Wond. Inv. World 26 To wrangle the Devil out of the Country, will be truly a new Experiment. |
† c. refl. To harass (oneself) by altercation.
Obs.| 1649 Bp. Sanderson in D'Oyly Life Sancroft II. 442 When we have wrangled ourselves as long as our wits and strengths will serve us. 1721 Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 8 (1726) 37 In this..mischievous course have these our reverend old mothers continued for several centuries, wrangling themselves about trifles. |
6. With
away,
out. To consume, spend, or pass away (time) in wrangling.
rare.
| 1794 A. M. Bennett Ellen IV. 230 They..may at last possibly agree to wrangle out the evening of their lives together. 1905 R. Garnett W. Shakespeare 53 Do I weakly Wrangle away my precious moments? |
7. Western U.S. To take charge of (horses); to herd.
| 1899 F. Remington Sundown Leflare 11 De herd, which was more horses..dan ten men kin wrangle. 1903 A. Adams Log Cowboy xiii. 197 Forrest detailed Rod Wheat to wrangle the horses, for we intended to take Honey⁓man with us. 1952 H. Innes Campbell's Kingdom i. ii. 38 He wrangles a bunch of horses and acts as packer for the visitors in the summer. |