wrangle
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɹæŋɡl̩/
ipa: /ˈɹæŋɡ(ə)l/
rhymes: -æŋɡəl
Forms: form: wrangles
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English wranglen, wrangle (“to contend with (someone) in a test of strength; (figuratively) to make misleading arguments to entrap”); from a Middle Dutch or Middle Low German word related to Middle Dutch wrangen and Middle Low German wrangen (“to cause an uproar; to struggle, wrestle”) (whence Low German wrangeln (“to wrangle”)), related to Middle Dutch wringen (“to twist; to wrest; to wring; to struggle, wrestle”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *wringaną (“to squeeze; to twist; to wring”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
Cognates
* Danish vringle (“to twist, entangle”)
* German rangeln (“to wrestle”)
Senses: examples: text: For in that you would your awardship shuld take none effect, you shew your selfe nothing inclinable to the redresse of your brothers vnright dealinge wyth an honeste poore man, which hath bene redye at your request to doo you pleasure with his things, or els he had neuer come into this wrāgle for his own goods with your brother.
ref: 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), Hugh Latimer, “A Frutefull Letter of Maister Latimer Written to a Certaine Gentilman”, in John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC, book V, page 1350 [1419]:
text: This vvould of Neceſſity, breed an infinite Number of Brangles and litigious Suits in the Spiritual Courts, and put the vvretched Paſtor at perpetual Variance vvith his vvhole Pariſh.
ref: [1732 March 6 (Gregorian calendar; date written), [Jonathan Swift], Considerations upon Two Bills Sent Down from the R[ight] H[onourable] the H[ouse] of L[ords] to the H[onoura]ble H[ouse] of C[ommons of Ireland] Relating to the Clergy of I[relan]d, London: […] A. Moore, […], published 1732, →OCLC, page 18:
text: For many people this is an astonishing moment of hope, a moment they thought would never come. And there are many of course who feel a sense of anxiety and loss. And then of course there is a third group – perhaps the biggest – who had started to worry that the whole political wrangle would never come to an end. I understand all those feelings and our job as the government – my job – is to bring this country together now and take us forward.
ref: 2020 January 31, Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, quotee, “Brexit: Flag lowered at Senedd as the UK leaves the EU”, in BBC News, published 1 February 2020, archived from the original on 13 Oct 2022:
glosses: An angry dispute; a noisy quarrel; an altercation.
examples: text: Wrangle and bloodshed followed thence.
text: From this dialogue the assembly fell to wrangle, and broke up quarrelling.
ref: a. 1798 (date written), Horace Walpole, chapter III, in Denis Le Marchant, editor, Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley […], published 1845, →OCLC, page 81:
text: None can hate / So much as I any kind of wrangle; / And yet, such is my folly, or my fate, / I always knock my head against some angle / About the present, past, or future state: […]
ref: 1824 March 26, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos XV. and XVI., London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and H[enry] L[eigh] Hunt, […], →OCLC, canto XV, stanza XCI, page 50:
glosses: Angry disputation; noisy quarrelling.
glosses: A contentious argument or response.
glosses: A controversy.
Derived terms: wranglesome
wringle-wrangle