argle-bargle

noun

A verbal argument.

Similar
wringle-wrangleargy-bargy
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Meanings

nounargle-bargle (countable and uncountable, plural argle-bargles)

plural argle-bargles · alternative argol-bargol

  1. countableslanguncountableA verbal argument.

    Wendell and I have had our share of argle-bargles about the morality of hunting.

    1992, Rebecca Ward, Grand Deception, page 43
    1 more example

    As I have said, the real rationale of today’s opinion, whatever disappearing trail of its legalistic argle-bargle one chooses to follow, is that DOMA is motivated by '"bare . . . desire to harm"' couples in same-sex marriages.

    2013, United States v. Windsor, 544 U.S. 744, 799 (2013) (Scalia, J., dissenting)
verbargle-bargle (third-person singular simple present argle-bargles, present participle argle-bargling, simple past and past participle argle-bargled)

present singular third person argle-bargles · participle present argle-bargling · participle past argle-bargled · past argle-bargled · alternative argol-bargol

  1. slangTo argue.

    Last night ye haggled and argle-bargled like an apple-wife; and then passed me your word, and gave me your hand to back it; and ye ken very well what was the upshot. Be damned to your word!

    1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Captain Knuckles Under”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 97

    Synonyms: wringle-wrangle

Synonyms & antonyms

verbTo argue.

Similar
wringle-wrangle

More synonyms by meaning

nouna verbal dispute; a wrangling argument

Similar
argy-bargy
Broader
controversycontentioncontestation
Also see
argy-bargywringle-wrangle

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

First documented in English in 1822, from Scots (where first recorded in 1808), from earlier argle (“argue obstinately, wrangle”) used in English since 16th century, presumably from argue + -le (frequentative suffix), though possibly from Old Norse (Suio-Gothic) ierga – possibly influenced by haggle – plus rhyming reduplication, possibly from bargain, found in early variant aurgle-bargain (1720).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

argle-bargle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/argle-bargle

MLA

“argle-bargle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/argle-bargle. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “argle-bargle,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/argle-bargle.

Source: argle-bargle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.