wringle-wrangle

noun

A verbal argument.

Meanings

nounwringle-wrangle (countable and uncountable, plural wringle-wrangles)

plural wringle-wrangles

  1. 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 World
    1 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
verbwringle-wrangle (third-person singular simple present wringle-wrangles, present participle wringle-wrangling, simple past and past participle wringle-wrangled)

present singular third person wringle-wrangles · participle present wringle-wrangling · participle past wringle-wrangled · past wringle-wrangled

  1. 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 25

    Synonyms: argle-bargle

Synonyms & antonyms

verbTo argue.

Also see

Origin

From wrangle by ablaut reduplication.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

wringle-wrangle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wringle-wrangle

MLA

“wringle-wrangle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wringle-wrangle. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

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.