Meanings
plural wringle-wrangles
- countableslanguncountableA verbal argument.
‘I can propose it,’ van Rijn said carefully. ‘After a month's wringle-wrangle, I get voted no. They won't believe either, SI would do something so bad like that, for some sternly commercial reason.’
1969, Poul Anderson, Satan's World1 more example
A curmudgeon attached to an obsolescent computing environment. The combination ITS troglodyte was flung around some during the Usenet and email wringle-wrangle attending the 2.x.x revision of the Jargon File; at least one of the people it was intended to describe adopted it with pride.
1996, compiled by Eric S. Raymond, The New Hacker's Dictionary, page 453, definition of troglodyte
present singular third person wringle-wrangles · participle present wringle-wrangling · participle past wringle-wrangled · past wringle-wrangled
- slangTo argue.
You know the foolishness of fighting; here is a haven of rest; and you must needs go back to wringle wrangle among the literary men of London.
1883, Sir Walter Besant, The Captains' Room etc., page 25Synonyms: argle-bargle
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo argue.
Origin
From wrangle by ablaut reduplication.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
wringle-wrangle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wringle-wrangle
“wringle-wrangle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wringle-wrangle. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wringle-wrangle,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wringle-wrangle.
Source: wringle-wrangle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.