[f. WRANGLE v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the verb; noisy quarrelling.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. IV. 34. There as wratthe and wranglyng is þere wynne þei siluer.
1551. Gardner, Explic. Christ’s Presence, 14. As for such other wranglyng … shall after be spoken of by further occasion.
1598. Florio, Contèsa,… a strife, a debate or wrangling.
1653. W. Ramesey, Astrol. Restored, 137. Mars … causes discord and wrangling.
1722. Ramsay, Three Bonnets, IV. 137. The king of brutes … wad … rage Wi’ bootless wrangling in his cage.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, III. xii. Though wild debate And wrangling rend our infant state.
1882. Sir C. Dilke, in Gwynn, Life (1917), I. 426. Much unseemly wrangling would be prevented for many years.
fig. 1609. Armin, Maids of More-cl., C 2 b. ’Twill become ye, well, when wrangling wrestles with such violent iniurie.
b. Controversial argument or debate; contentious disputation.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 219. There falleth out amongst them oft-times … much wrangling about the questions.
1641. Milton, Reformation, 25. What wrangling the Bishops and Monks had about the reading, or not reading of Origen.
1679. Penn, Addr. Prot., II. ii. (1692), 71. Philosophy … became little else than an Art of Rangling upon a multitude of Idle Questions.
1720. S. Payne, in R. Cumberland’s Sanchon., p. xxvii. His Averseness to any thing like Wrangling made him lay them by, and leave his Book to shift for it self.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 334. All that wrangling and witticism wherewith the prophecies … have been pelted by freethinkers.
1827. Whateley, Logic, 26. A system of such rules … must, instead of deserving to be called the art of wrangling, be [etc.].
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xxv. 436. A refuge from platform oratory and senatorial wrangling.
attrib. c. 1700. Pomfret, Strephon’s Love, 9.
| Love triumph’d o’er those dull Pedantick Rules, | |
| They had collected from the Wrangling Schools. |
1708. Rowe, Royal Convert, I. i. Unpractis’d in Disputes, and wrangling Schools.
2. A wrangle; a noisy quarrel.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 472. They that can-not suffer the wranglyngs of young marryed women.
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. Vocation, 1152. He heard amid the street A wrangling, jangling, and a murmur rude.
1668. Glanvill, Plus Ultra, Pref. Consider me as a Person that contemns all Wranglings.
1727. Swift, To Stella, 7. Not in Wranglings to engage With such a stupid vicious Age.
1788. V. Knox, Winter Even., lxx. (1790), II. 530. The wranglings of Cambridge, and the disputations at Oxford, are apt to give young men a controversial turn, which [etc.].
1821. Byron, Sardanap., II. i. Truce with these wranglings, and but hear me!
1890. Talmage, Fr. Manger to Throne, 562. Unseemly wranglings concerning who should be greatest in the kingdom of Christ.
