haggling, vbl. n.
(ˈhæglɪŋ)
[f. haggle v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb haggle. a. Wrangling about terms, bargaining with much discussion. b. Uneven or clumsy cutting.
| a. 1632 Sherwood, A haggling, barguigne. 1765 Cowper Wks. (1835–37) I. 197 Disagreeable haggling and higgling, and twisting and wriggling, to save my money. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 95 After some haggling he consented to sell..his pretensions..for a pension of five hundred pounds a year. |
| b. 1846 Ruskin Mod. Paint. (1851) I. ii. ii. iii. §13 Half the chiaroscuro is totally destroyed by the haggling, blackening, and ‘making out’ of the engravers. |