naggle

present singular third person naggles · participle present naggling · participle past naggled · past naggled

1. obsoleteTo toss the head or cause to toss the head.

   Over his prostrate body we ambled, the ill - tempered little beast naggling at its bit, and doing his utmost to unseat me .

   1922, Walter De la Mare, Memoirs of a Midget, page 377

   2 more examples

   On the Pieces last Sunday they made such a rout, i That the scurrilous author would soon be found out, Then they naggled their heads, while their tails flew about.

   1780, Timmy Straightforward (pseud.), A Third Letter from Timmy Straightforward to his Mother, page 7

   To manage children so skilfully that they do not know they are being managed is a great art. A good driver never naggles his horse : he lets the bit prove a guide, but not an irritant.

   1881, Alfred Rowland, Half-hours with teachers, page 41

2. To niggle; to irritate or bother continually or repeatedly.

   But I knew the doctor's words naggled in the back of his mind.

   2018, Laura J. Gabbard, My Toughest One

   3 more examples

   Nothing obscene, for goodness sake, but just at the bare threshold of audibility, so that it niggles and naggles and bothers.

   1969, Harlan Ellison, The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, page 153

   Or will the story come first? — the "some incident observed in the subway" which naggles away at the author, until he begins to write about it, seeing only then (but perhaps not really clearly, himself, ever at all) the point of what he is saying,

   1970, Frank A. Dickson, Sandra Smythe, Handbook of Short Story Writing, page 220

   There is Rhoda who has jumped out of an excellent position with the Prudential into some ridiculous place where they bore holes in strips of metal for little boys to play with —Meccano, is it called?—and poor Vera Potter in a sanatorium, they say both lungs are affected—and I still cannot help thinking about Cassica's cousin...Oh, how it all niggles and naggles ...

   2012, Judy Gardiner, Miss Gathercole's Girls

3. To haggle; to negotiate argumentatively.

   Nobody wants to naggle about a few months or a year or two, more or less, but the difficulties of the case are exceedingly complicated.

   1899, Great Britain. Parliament, The Parliamentary Debates, page 637

   4 more examples

   Ye see the wives naggle aboot tripe and sheep heeds , Or washing their greens at a fountain, Where the young Nuns used to be telling their beads, And had nowt but thor sins to be countin';

   1889 February, “The New Markets”, in The Monthly Chronicle of North-country Lore and Legend, volume 3, number 24, page 83

   Under modern conditions and the extremely high cost of estimating plumbing work, he can not afford to estimate or submit bids which will be shopped or naggled after the award of contract.

   1953, United States. Congress. Joint Committee, Hearings, page 55

   And I sent along a note saying please would they send me some cans so's I can get this fish under cover before it spoils and after that I guarantee to sit down and fill out another fish crate of forms for OPA and haggle and naggle for as long as they please.

   1995, Kathy Hogan, Klancy Clark De Nevers, Lucy Hart, Cohassett Beach Chronicles, page 259

   If a Sacaronducan shows energy and enterprise, and puts money together, or founds a business, or starts a mine, all his neighbours promptly take a grab at the plunder, and the Government naggles for the biggest share.

   2015, Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne, The Filibusters

4. intransitiveTo nag, carp, or quarrel.

   A child should be joyous, but how, if he be continually naggled at, can he be?

   1873, Pye Henry Chavasse, Aphorisms on the Mental Culture and Training of a Child

   2 more examples

   Many instances occur daily in which married people go on naggling at one another—naggle, naggle, until they get into a perfect storm—though both would be heartily ashamed for any third party to know what they were quarrelling about.

   1861, John Cale Miller, Courtship and Marriage, page 28

   When a husband and wife keep their secrets apart, Not a word to "my spounse" about this or on that; When a trifle may banish the pledge of their heart, And he naggles—she naggles—both contradict flat; Though unequaled their love when its first blossoms blew, I wouldn't give much for their quiet—would you?

   1897, The Favorite Speaker, page 157

5. transitiveTo harass or scold.

   I 'll go for my paw if folks naggle me ; an' nobody shall tech me !

   1899, St. Nicholas - Volume 26, Part 1, page 396

   1 more example

   She naggles thy heart out, maybe. But that's just the wrigglin' a place out for hersen.

   1988, David Herbert Lawrence, The widowing of Mrs Holroyd ; &, The daughter-in-law, page 95

6. To make many minor adjustments to; to fiddle with.

   You can niggle and naggle at any set of documents and always imply that the set you might have put together would have been ever so much better.

   1974, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society

   1 more example

   The Bulletin art critic not only praised her 1894 Country Visitors and still-life studies but stated, in typically misogynist Bulletin style, that the latter showed 'a strength sadly lacking in the naggling method of most of her sister- artists'.

   1995, Joan Kerr, Heritage: The National Women's Art Book

7. To claw or dig away.

   The group of girls gathered round her as she began to naggle the long strands off, bit by bit, as close to her head as possible.

   1995, Sybil Marshall, The Chequer-board, page 85

   1 more example

   "Water! —water!" she murmured as though in prayer to it , kneeling by the hole she had naggled in the ice , dabbling her finger in the icy slush that scarce let the water through.

   1899 September, Erle Cromer, “The Widow of Mums”, in The Canadian Magazine, volume 13, number 5, page 464

plural naggles

1. A minor irritant.

   So they all revolved round their trailing orbits in the sand, revolved round the naggles in their brains; all, except the sergeant.

   1948, The Strand Magazine - Volume 115, page 41