different between quibble vs wrangle

English

Etymology

quib +? -le. Quib is probably from Latin quibus (“in what respect? how?”), which appeared frequently in legal documents and came to be suggestive of the verbosity and petty argumentation found therein.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kw?b?l/
• Rhymes: -?b?l

Noun

quibble (plural quibbles)

1. (now rare) A pun. [from 17th c.]
   • 1864, Robert Kemp Philp (editor), The Family Friend (page 54)

     Is it a quibble, or play upon words?
2. An objection or argument based on an ambiguity of wording or similar trivial circumstance; a minor complaint. [from 17th c.]
   • Quibbles […] have no place in the search after truth.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:dispute

Translations

Verb

quibble (third-person singular simple present quibbles, present participle quibbling, simple past and past participle quibbled)

1. (informal, intransitive) To complain or argue in a trivial or petty manner.

   They are constantly quibbling over insignificant details.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:squabble

Translations

References

English

Etymology

From Middle English wranglen, from Low German wrangeln (“to wrangle”), frequentative form of wrangen (“to struggle, make an uproar”); equivalent to wring +? -le. Related to Danish vringle (“to twist, entangle”) and German rangeln (“to wrestle”). More at wrong, wring.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æ?.??l/
• Rhymes: -æ???l

Verb

wrangle (third-person singular simple present wrangles, present participle wrangling, simple past and past participle wrangled)

1. (intransitive) To bicker, or quarrel angrily and noisily.
   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, Scene 1,^[1]

     Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle,

     And I would call it, fair play.

   • 1716, Joseph Addison, The Freeholder, No. 39, Friday, May 4, 1716, in The Works of Joseph Addison, Volume III, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1837, p. 235,^[2]

     He did not know what it was to wrangle on indifferent points, to triumph in the superiority of his understanding, or to be supercilious on the side of truth.

   • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 18,^[3]

     I stood where land and sea wrangled ferociously over the overlap.

2. (transitive) To herd (horses or other livestock); (humorously) to supervise, manage (people).
   • 1962, “The Second Time Around,” Time, 12 January, 1962,^[4]

     When she tries to wrangle a calf, she ends up flat on her face in the barnyard muck.

   • 2010, Sean Gordon, “Gionta settles in, stands out,” The Globe and Mail, 3 October, 2010,^[5]

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

3. (transitive, by figurative extension from the sense with animals and people) To gather and organize (facts, information, data), especially in ways that require sentience rather than automated methods alone, as in data wrangling.

   Synonym: munge

4. (transitive) To involve in a quarrel or dispute; to embroil.
   • 1649, Robert Sanderson, Letter to N. N. respecting the relative Merits of the Presbyterians and the Independents, 10 April, 1649, in George D’Oyly, The Life of William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, Volume II, London: John Murray, 1821, Appendix, p. 442,^[6]

     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 […]

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:squabble

Derived terms

• wrangler
• wrangling

Translations

Noun

wrangle (plural wrangles)

1. An act of wrangling.

   Wrangle and bloodshed followed thence.

2. An angry dispute.
   • January 31 2020, Boris Johnson, Brexit Day speech

     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.

Translations

Anagrams

• Wangler, wangler