wrangle

verb

1. (transitive)To convince or influence (someone) by arguing or contending.
2. (transitive)Followed by out of: to elicit (something) from a person by arguing or bargaining.

   “[W]e vvrangled out of the King ten quarters of Corne for a copper Kettel, the vvhich the Preſident preceiving him much to affect, valued it at a much greater rate; […]”

3. (archaic, rare, transitive)To speak or write (something) in an argumentative or contentious manner.

   “[H]e has taken in, Sir, the vvhole ſubject,— […] begging, borrovving, and ſtealing, as he vvent along, all that had been vvrote or vvrangled thereupon in the ſchools and porticos of the learned; […]”

4. (archaic, rare, transitive)To spend (time) arguing or quarrelling.
5. (US, Western, transitive)To herd (horses or other livestock).

   “When she [Debbie Reynolds as Lucretia Rogers] tries to wrangle a calf, she ends up flat on her face in the barnyard muck.”

6. (US, Western, broadly, humorous, transitive)To herd (horses or other livestock).

   “Wrangling a chaotic group of five-year-olds is unnerving enough without the added stress of a famous NHLer [Brian Gionta] in the room helping lace his son’s skates.”

7. (US, Western, figuratively, transitive)To herd (horses or other livestock).
8. (obsolete, transitive)Followed by out of: to compel or drive (someone or something) away through arguing.

   “To VVrangle the Devil, out of the Country, vvill be truly a Nevv Experiment! Alas, vve are not Avvare of the Devil, if vve do not think, that he aims at Enflaming us one againſt another; & ſhall vve ſuffer our ſelves to be Devil-Ridden? or, by any Vnadviſableneſs, contribute unto the VVidening of our Breaches?”

9. (obsolete, transitive)Followed by out: to put forward arguments on (a case, a matter disagreed upon, etc.).

   “VVell then, if I make 'hem not vvrangle out this caſe, to his no comfort, let me be thought a Iack Davv, or La-Foole, or any thing vvorſe.”

10. (obsolete, reflexive, transitive)To cause (oneself) grief through arguing or quarrelling.

    “When we have wrangled ourselves as long as our wits and strengths will serve us, the honest, downright sober English Protestant will be found, in the end, the man in the safest way, and by the surest line: […]”

11. (also, figuratively, intransitive)To quarrel angrily and noisily; to bicker.

    “[A]fter his old manner, he wrangleth and quarrelleth.”

    “Mens natures vvrangle with inferior things, / Tho great ones are the obiect, […]”

    “There vvas a contention of vvordes betvvixt you & your father erevvhile. Thou vvert at vvords, or vvrangledſt vvith him right novv.”

    “Did man, (thinke you) come wrangling into the world, about no better matters, then all his lifetime to make priuy ſearches in Burchin lane for Whalebone doublets, or for pies of Nightingale tongues in Heliogabalus his kitchin?”

    “Yes, for a ſcore of Kingdomes, you ſhould vvrangle, / And I vvould call it, faire play.”

12. (intransitive)To make harsh noises as if quarrelling.

    “A suitable attire the horses shew; / Their golden bits keep wrangling as they go; […]”

    “Distant and near and low and loud the bells, / Dominican, Benedictine, and Franciscan, / Jangle and wrangle in their airy towers, / Discordant as the brotherhoods themselves / In their dim cloisters.”

13. (also, figuratively, intransitive)To argue, to debate; also (dated), to debate or discuss publicly, especially about a thesis at a university.

    “Forſoothe, that vvhen he had concluded that vve muſt no liue by examples, but by lavves, he might make ſimple ſoules beleaue, that they ought not follovve the exãples of their holy forefathers, in bleſsing them ſelues, but to haue the name of the lavve in their mouthes and do nothing leſſe thã that the lavve biddeth them to doe. And to bring that to paſſe ſee hovve he vvrangleth.”

    “VVher the Philoſophers as they think ſcorne to delight, ſo muſt they be content little to mooue; ſauing vvrangling vvhether Virtue be the chiefe or the onely good; […]”

    “But [Severin] Binius vvrangleth here; Can vve blame him vvhen the free-hold of their Great Miſtreſſe is ſo neerely touched?”

    “At this thou also wranglest, because I said that "every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the world was, did in the appointed time of the Father come into the world, take a body upon him, and was very man as well as very God; and did in that very body suffer what did belong to the sons of men," &c.”

    “And all this queſtion (vvrangle e'er ſo long) / Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?”

noun

1. (countable)An angry dispute; a noisy quarrel; an altercation.

   “For in that you would your awardship shuld take none effect, you shew your selfe nothing inclinable to the redresse of your brothers vnright dealinge wyth an honeste poore man, which hath bene redye at your request to doo you pleasure with his things, or els he had neuer come into this wrāgle for his own goods with your brother.”

   “This vvould of Neceſſity, breed an infinite Number of Brangles and litigious Suits in the Spiritual Courts, and put the vvretched Paſtor at perpetual Variance vvith his vvhole Pariſh.”

   “For many people this is an astonishing moment of hope, a moment they thought would never come. And there are many of course who feel a sense of anxiety and loss. And then of course there is a third group – perhaps the biggest – who had started to worry that the whole political wrangle would never come to an end. I understand all those feelings and our job as the government – my job – is to bring this country together now and take us forward.”

2. (uncountable)Angry disputation; noisy quarrelling.

   “Wrangle and bloodshed followed thence.”

   “From this dialogue the assembly fell to wrangle, and broke up quarrelling.”

   “None can hate / So much as I any kind of wrangle; / And yet, such is my folly, or my fate, / I always knock my head against some angle / About the present, past, or future state: […]”

3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A contentious argument or response.
4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A controversy.