caffle

present singular third person caffles · participle present caffling · participle past caffled · past caffled

1. IrelandNorthern EnglanddialectalTo wrangle, to argue, to quarrel.
2. IrelandNorthern EnglanddialectalTo entangle.
3. Northern EnglanddialectalTo prevaricate; to change one's mind.

   Mr. W—, after some caffling, declared he did not say so and so.

   1886, Notes and Queries, page 67

   3 more examples

   Neither snow nor rain could prevent him from going, for he hated caffling.

   1876, Memoir Rev. J. Gregory, page 25, quoted in the EDD

   An' he caffles, an' slews, an' weant saay nowt stright oot aboot munny; an' thaay niver gets to knaw how things is to be left.

   1889, Mabel Geraldine W. Peacock, North Lincolnshire dialect. Taales fra Linkisheere, page 38

   He caffled a bit when he was afoore th' magistrates, bud it were to noä good.

   1889, Edward Peacock, A Glossary of Words Used in the Wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lincolnshire, page 89

4. IrelandNorthern EnglanddialectalTo cheat.