wrangle
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
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”)
Inflected forms:
form: wrangles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: wrangling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: wrangled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: wrangled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: wrangle
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: wrangle
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: wrangled
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: wrangle
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: wranglest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: wrangled
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: wrangledst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: wrangles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: wrangleth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: wrangled
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: wrangle
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: wrangled
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: wrangle
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: wrangled
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: wrangle
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: wrangling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: wrangled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: wrangles
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To convince or influence (someone) by arguing or contending.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: Followed by out of: to elicit (something) from a person by arguing or bargaining.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: [W]e vvrangled out of the King ten quarters of Corne for a copper Kettel, the vvhich the Preſident preceiving him much to affect, valued it at a much greater rate; […]
gloss: To speak or write (something) in an argumentative or contentious manner.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
rare
transitive
examples: [H]e has taken in, Sir, the vvhole ſubject,— […] begging, borrovving, and ſtealing, as he vvent along, all that had been vvrote or vvrangled thereupon in the ſchools and porticos of the learned; […]
gloss: To spend (time) arguing or quarrelling.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
rare
transitive
gloss: To herd (horses or other livestock).
pos: verb
tags: US
Western
transitive
examples: When she [Debbie Reynolds as Lucretia Rogers] tries to wrangle a calf, she ends up flat on her face in the barnyard muck.
gloss: To herd (horses or other livestock).
pos: verb
tags: US
Western
broadly
humorous
transitive
examples: Wrangling a chaotic group of five-year-olds is unnerving enough without the added stress of a famous NHLer [Brian Gionta] in the room helping lace his son’s skates.
gloss: To herd (horses or other livestock).
pos: verb
tags: US
Western
figuratively
transitive
gloss: Followed by out of: to compel or drive (someone or something) away through arguing.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: To VVrangle the Devil, out of the Country, vvill be truly a Nevv Experiment! Alas, vve are not Avvare of the Devil, if vve do not think, that he aims at Enflaming us one againſt another; & ſhall vve ſuffer our ſelves to be Devil-Ridden? or, by any Vnadviſableneſs, contribute unto the VVidening of our Breaches?
gloss: Followed by out: to put forward arguments on (a case, a matter disagreed upon, etc.).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: VVell then, if I make 'hem not vvrangle out this caſe, to his no comfort, let me be thought a Iack Davv, or La-Foole, or any thing vvorſe.
gloss: To cause (oneself) grief through arguing or quarrelling.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
reflexive
transitive
examples: When we have wrangled ourselves as long as our wits and strengths will serve us, the honest, downright sober English Protestant will be found, in the end, the man in the safest way, and by the surest line: […]
gloss: To quarrel angrily and noisily; to bicker.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
intransitive
examples: [A]fter his old manner, he wrangleth and quarrelleth.
Mens natures vvrangle with inferior things, / Tho great ones are the obiect, […]
There vvas a contention of vvordes betvvixt you & your father erevvhile. Thou vvert at vvords, or vvrangledſt vvith him right novv.
Did man, (thinke you) come wrangling into the world, about no better matters, then all his lifetime to make priuy ſearches in Burchin lane for Whalebone doublets, or for pies of Nightingale tongues in Heliogabalus his kitchin?
Yes, for a ſcore of Kingdomes, you ſhould vvrangle, / And I vvould call it, faire play.
Vpon the eighth of Aprill vve vvent aboord the Trinity, and hoiſſed ſailes for Sidon: the vvindes fauourable, and the ſeas compoſed; but anon they began to vvrangle, and vve to ſuffer.
[H]ee cavelleth or vvrangleth not vvith any in this kind: therefore you are a lying fellovv.
Here it is / For vvhich ye vvrangle, […]
[T]here vve ſit, / for a bit, / till vve fiſh intangle. / […] / [W]e ſit ſtill, / vvatch our quill, / Fiſhers muſt not rangle.
He did not knovv vvhat it vvas to vvrangle on indifferent points, to triumph in the ſuperiority of his underſtanding, or to be ſupercilious on the ſide of truth.
[T]he Captain and the other ſtaid vvith the Men, vvho vvere very unruly, and ever and anon quarrelling and vvrangling about their VVealth, vvhich, indeed, vvas very conſiderable; […]
VVhat ſpirits vvere his, vvhat vvit and vvhat vvhim, / Novv breaking a jeſt, and novv breaking a limb; / Novv rangling and grumbling to keep up the ball, / Novv teazing and vexing, yet laughing at all?
[T]hey sometimes wrangle with her for an hour together under my study window, like three sea-gulls screaming and sputtering in a gale of wind.
Then this person influenced by desire, on account of his ever-increasing anger and sense of self-importance, wrangleth with others in order to bring destruction down upon himself.
I stood where land and sea wrangled ferociously over the overlap.
gloss: To make harsh noises as if quarrelling.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: A suitable attire the horses shew; / Their golden bits keep wrangling as they go; […]
Distant and near and low and loud the bells, / Dominican, Benedictine, and Franciscan, / Jangle and wrangle in their airy towers, / Discordant as the brotherhoods themselves / In their dim cloisters.
gloss: To argue, to debate; also (dated), to debate or discuss publicly, especially about a thesis at a university.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
intransitive
examples: Forſoothe, that vvhen he had concluded that vve muſt no liue by examples, but by lavves, he might make ſimple ſoules beleaue, that they ought not follovve the exãples of their holy forefathers, in bleſsing them ſelues, but to haue the name of the lavve in their mouthes and do nothing leſſe thã that the lavve biddeth them to doe. And to bring that to paſſe ſee hovve he vvrangleth.
VVher the Philoſophers as they think ſcorne to delight, ſo muſt they be content little to mooue; ſauing vvrangling vvhether Virtue be the chiefe or the onely good; […]
But [Severin] Binius vvrangleth here; Can vve blame him vvhen the free-hold of their Great Miſtreſſe is ſo neerely touched?
At this thou also wranglest, because I said that "every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the world was, did in the appointed time of the Father come into the world, take a body upon him, and was very man as well as very God; and did in that very body suffer what did belong to the sons of men," &c.
And all this queſtion (vvrangle e'er ſo long) / Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?
But when I turn away, / Thou, willing me to stay, / Wooest not, nor vainly wranglest; / But, looking fixedly the while, / All my bounding heart entanglest, / In a golden-netted smile; […]
The factions of the Parliament House, awe-struck by the common danger, forgot to wrangle.
gloss: An angry dispute; a noisy quarrel; an altercation.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: 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.
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.
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.
gloss: Angry disputation; noisy quarrelling.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Wrangle and bloodshed followed thence.
From this dialogue the assembly fell to wrangle, and broke up quarrelling.
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: […]
gloss: A contentious argument or response.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
gloss: A controversy.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
Related words: tard wrangle
Derived words: data wrangling
wrangled
wrangler
wranglership
wrangling
wringle-wrangle
wranglesome
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: рабптя като каубой
roman: rabptja kato kauboj
lang: Czech
word: hnát (stádo)
lang: Finnish
word: paimentaa
lang: German
word: treiben
lang: Portuguese
word: pastorar
lang: Romanian
word: păstori
lang: Swedish
word: driva
lang: Swedish
word: valla
lang: Swedish
word: leda