Wrangler

[f. as prec. + -ER¹.]

  1.  One who wrangles or quarrels; an angry or noisy disputer or arguer.

c. 1515.  Cocke Lorell’s B., 4. Here is gylys Fogeler of ayebery,… With wallys the wrangler.

c. 1520.  Dial. Creatures Mor., v. B ij b. Many one … ageynst Lawe and Reason somtyme wyll stryue and … be full of questyons, wherfore they be takyn for wrangelers and euyll people.

1579.  Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 106. Lucilla … will either shut mee out for a Wrangler, or cast mee off for a Wiredrawer.

1619.  in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1906), I. 68. Giles James, a swaggerer and wrangler, much discommended.

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 159. Convinced gainesayers and wranglers they are, in stead of convincers.

1741.  Watts, Improv. Mind, I. xiii. § 20. Rather like well-bred gentlemen in polite conversation, than like noisy and contentious wranglers.

1790.  Cowper, Iliad, I. 360. But this wrangler here—Nought will suffice him but the highest place.

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb., IV. i. His name … was a corruption of Kyver, that is to say, a wrangler or scolder.

a. 1901.  Stubbs, Germany in Early Mid. Ages (1908), 107. Henry the Wrangler conspired with the Czechs of Bohemia.

  fig. and transf.  1578.  H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 129. Where so the wofull Louer is, euen there also is he [sc. Cupid], In bedde the wrangler will not misse his pillowbeare to be.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. ii. 75. The Seas and Windes (old Wranglers) tooke a Truce.

1633.  G. Herbert, Temple, Family, ii. What doth this noise of thoughts within my heart?… Lord,… Turn out these wranglers, which defile thy seat.

  Prov.  1616.  T. Draxe, Bibl. Scholast., 244. An ill word is alwayes readie. A wrangler neuer wanteth words.

1671.  T. Hunt, Abeced. Scholast., 18. Many Lawyers, many Wranglers.

  b.  One who engages in argument, debate or controversy; a debater, disputant or controversialist.

1561.  T. N[orton], Calvin’s Inst., IV. xviii. 145 b. Nowe least any wrangler shoulde stirre vs vp strife by reason of the names of sacrifice and sacrificing prest.

1597.  Morley, Introd. Mus., 90. I set downe the proportions … to content wranglers, who … will … take occasion to … detract from that which they cannot disproue.

c. 1643.  Ld. Herbert, Autobiog. (1824), 42. Teaching them the subtilities of Logic, which as it is usually practised, enables them for little more than to be excellent wranglers.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., IV. viii. § 11. These general Maxims … are of great Use in Disputes, to stop the Mouths of Wranglers.

1741.  Warburton, Div. Legat., II. II. Append. 23. There is indeed a Time when a Serious Writer would not trouble himself to confute or set a Wrangler right.

1774.  Reid, Aristotle’s Logic, vi. § 1 (1788), 127. A man who has studied logic all his life may be, after all, only a petulant wrangler.

1842.  I. Taylor, Enthus., iv. 79. The argumentative resources of the modern … wrangler [earlier edd. stoic].

1881.  Paxton Hood, Christmas Evans, 162. He was not a wrangler, not disposed to maintain debates as to his rights.

  c.  The name for each of the candidates who have been placed in the first class in the mathematical tripos at Cambridge University. See TRIPOS 2, and cf. SENIOR a. 3.

1750.  Friendly Adv. Old Tory to Vice-C. Cambr. (1751), 26. The Wranglers … have usually expected, that all the young Ladies of their Acquaintance … should wish them Joy of their Honours.

1791.  in C. Wordsworth, Schol. Acad. (1877), 323. I did above three times as much as the Sen[io]r Wrangler last year.

1812.  Examiner, 7 Sept., 571/2. These two drivellers are represented as having been fellow-wranglers at College!

1831–.  [see SENIOR a. 3].

1859.  H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xii. He took up his books once more, and came forth third wrangler.

1874.  C. Wordsworth, Soc. Life Eng. Univ., 232. The set for Com. Priora, Feb. 9, 1748–9,… being the earliest which bears on its back a list of the Wranglers and Senior Optimes.

  fig.  c. 1820.  Byron, Diary, Wks. (1846), 630/2. Lady B. would have made an excellent wrangler at Cambridge.

  2.  Western U.S. One who is in charge of a string of horses or ponies on a stock-farm; a herder.

1888.  Roosevelt, in Cent. Mag., April, 851/2. There are two herders, always known as ‘horse-wranglers’—one for the day and one for the night.

1901.  Munsey’s Mag., XXV. 405/2. One of them would … overpower the ‘wrangler’ in the darkness, and turn the horses loose.