wrangle
oxford
views updated May 23 2018wran·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.
The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English
wrangle
oxford
views updated May 29 2018wrangle 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.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD
Wrangle
gale
views updated May 29 2018Wrangle
a noisy quarrel; a jangle.
Examples: wrangle of bells, 1873; of philosophers—Lipton, 1970; of the stages, 1839.
Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms
