verb. (old colloquial).—To argue disputatiously; to haggle; to bandy words: also ARGLE-BARGLE, ARGOL-BARGOL, or ARGIE-BARGIE. Whence ARGOL-BARGOLOUS = quarrelsome: cf. ARG.
1589. Hay any Work (1844), 11. I will neuer stand ARGLING the matter any more.
1822. GALT, The Provost, 194. No doubt his ARGOL-BARGOLOUS disposition was an inheritance. Ibid. (1823), The Entail, I. 53. ‘Weel, weel,’ said the laird, ‘dinna let us ARGOL-BARGOL about it.’
1827. MOIR, The Life of Mansie Wauch, 78. Me and the minister were just ARGLE-BARGLING some few words on the doctrine of the camel and the eye of the needle.
1827. J. WILSON, Noctes Ambrosianæ, I. 336. But I hate a’ ARGLING and BARGLE-BARGLING.
1861. DEAN RAMSAY, Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character, II. 99. And all ARGLEBARGLING, as if at the end of a fair.
