1. To argue at length over a disagreement, often noisily or with irritation.
2. A disagreement or argument that continues for some time and resists easy resolution.
3. To control, organize, or move difficult people, animals, or things.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- wrangle over terms
- wrangle with officials
- wrangle about costs
On the page
The neighbors wrangled over the boundary long after the surveyor had left.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- wrangle
- Past tense
- wrangled
- Past participle
- wrangled
- Present participle
- wrangling
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- wrangle
- Present continuous
- am/is/are wrangling
- Present perfect
- have/has wrangled
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been wrangling
- Past
- wrangled
- Past continuous
- was/were wrangling
- Past perfect
- had wrangled
- Past perfect continuous
- had been wrangling
- Future
- will wrangle
- Future continuous
- will be wrangling
- Future perfect
- will have wrangled
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been wrangling
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: literary / elevated prose. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: wrangle; wrangles; wrangled; wrangled; wrangling. Noun singular wrangle; plural wrangles. Commonness: moderately common (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: Cambridge supplies argument noun/verb, difficult control of animals/people/things, and obtain-by-persuasion; overflow flagged rather than mixing. Writing functions: precise action, characterization. Third-person singular: wrangles.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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