wrangle
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
-
to argue or dispute.
-
to tend or round up (cattle, horses, or other livestock).
-
to obtain, often by contrivance or scheming; wangle.
He wrangled a job through a friend.
noun
verb
-
(intr) to argue, esp noisily or angrily
-
(tr) to encourage, persuade, or obtain by argument
-
(tr) to herd (cattle or horses)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wranglesimple
-
wranglessimple
-
have wrangledperfect
-
has wrangledperfect
-
am wranglingprogressive
-
are wranglingprogressive
-
is wranglingprogressive
-
have been wranglingperfect progressive
-
has been wranglingperfect progressive
Past
-
wrangledsimple
-
had wrangledperfect
-
was wranglingprogressive
-
were wranglingprogressive
-
had been wranglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wrangle
1350–1400; Middle English, apparently < Low German wrangeln, frequentative of wrangen to struggle, make an uproar; akin to wring
Explanation
To wrangle is to take part in a long, angry, intense argument, especially over an issue with lots of details. You can also wrangle, or herd, a bunch of cows. Politicians and lawyers frequently wrangle, no cows necessary. Wrangle in its current meaning comes from the nineteenth century American term wrangling, the art of herding cattle, probably with the idea in mind that rounding up those tiresome details is a bit like rounding up all those tiresome cattle; they tend to go flying off in all directions. From wrangler in the cowboy sense we get Wrangler jeans, though not all wranglers wear Wranglers of course.
Vocabulary lists containing wrangle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Nobody wants to wrangle with an insurance adjuster after his home burns down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
Too many lines of code to analyze, armies of AI assistants to wrangle, and lengthy prompts to draft are among the laments by hard-core AI adopters.
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
He could either exploit the armada as leverage to wrangle a diplomatic deal or pull the trigger.
From Slate ● Mar. 4, 2026
That email doesn't specify what "matter" he's referring to, but since 2009, Stern, Epstein, and Sarah Ferguson had been engaged in a long and painful wrangle about her acute financial troubles.
From BBC ● Feb. 28, 2026
“Sure I can’t wrangle you into a season of water polo this spring?” he said.
From "Tradition" by Brendan Kiely
Atop the aerial ladder of a bright red fire engine, a firefighter wrangles a hose.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2025
There have been wrangles over territory in the South China Sea for centuries, but tension has grown in recent years.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2025
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said the government’s wording was so vague it will lead to legal wrangles and most people “do not know what the meaning of a durable relationship is.”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2024
Somehow he wrangles a group of five surly boys until one of their rich fathers comes through and whisks away four.
From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2024
Frau Büchner wrangles impossible harmonies from our voices.
From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper
Yet as I wrangled them into my closet, something kept nagging at me like a pebble in an insole: Bernie Sanders’ eye-rolling dismissal outside the Senate elevator.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
“She did,” he called from a distance, as he wrangled one of their two dogs, Chicken.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
As a young father, Craig moved his family to the Northern Territories of Australia, where he wrangled “scrub bulls and buffalo” that had escaped from herds and needed to be sent to market.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025
Some hunted for drinks, others were wrangled by publicists to interviews and photo shoots with eager journalists.
From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2025
Jessie announced to Isa, Oliver, and Hyacinth as she wrangled Laney into her puffy purple jacket and sparkly winter boots.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
The agreement between Britain and the European Union to remove the border controls was signed on Tuesday in Brussels after years of wrangling following the UK's exit from the bloc in 2020.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
We’re wrangling a lot of very needy creative egos.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
Last month the Commerce Department blocked Anthropic from selling its state-of-the-art models abroad owing to national security concerns and it took weeks of wrangling to resolve this impasse.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
The EU on Thursday approved the tariff cuts it promised to the U.S. in last year’s trade deal after months of internal wrangling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
When I wasn't bleeding, and when Mirren and Johnny were snorkeling or wrangling the littles, or when everyone lay on couches watching movies on the Clairmont flat-screen, Gat and I hid away.
From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.