wrangle
/ˈraŋɡ(ə)l
/noun
A dispute or argument, typically one that is long and complicated: an insurance wrangle is holding up compensation payments...
- Plans by the Government to buy the island and designate it as a national historic park have been dogged by controversy, including a legal wrangle over the past 20 years that went as far as the Supreme Court.
- A sports store which burnt to the ground in a spectacular blaze may never reopen due to an insurance wrangle, the Evening Gazette can reveal.
- He has been at the club too long and had to shut out too many protests and boardroom wrangles to let it throw him now.
Synonyms
argument, dispute, disagreement, quarrel, row, fight, squabble, difference of opinion, altercation, angry exchange, war of words, shouting match, tiff;
tussle, brouhaha, fracas, rumpus, brawl, clash, scuffle, battle, war, feud;
controversy, uproar;
Irish, North American, & Australian donnybrook
informal falling-out, set-to, run-in, shindig, shindy, dust-up, punch-up, scrap, spat, free-for-all, argy-bargy, ruckus, fisticuffs, ruction
British informal barney, bunfight, ding-dong, bust-up, ruck, slanging match
British informal, Football afters
Scottish informal rammy
North American informal rhubarb
archaic broil, miff
verb
1 [no object] Have a long, complicated dispute or argument: the bureaucrats continue wrangling over the fine print (as noun wrangling) weeks of political wrangling...
- While politicians wrangle, rangers continue working in a dangerous climate, and the parks are getting trashed.
- Councillors from all three parties in Bolton have been wrangling over political power since the local elections on May 1 left a hung council.
- There, they wrangled, argued and debated over the form the new government would take.
Synonyms
argue, quarrel, row, have a row, bicker, squabble, have words, debate, disagree, have a disagreement, have an altercation, be at odds, bandy words;
contend, fight, have a fight, war, battle, feud, clash, grapple, brawl, spar, wrestle, tilt, come to blows, cross swords, lock horns, be at each other's throats, be at loggerheads
informal fall out, scrap, go at it hammer and tongs, fight like cat and dog
rare altercate, chop logic
Scottish archaic threap
2 [with object] North American Round up, herd, or take charge of (livestock): the horses were wrangled early...
- Only yesterday, you'd have thought there was no way to wrangle that horse back into the barn.
- He wrangled horses for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
- Head for the open range and learn how to wrangle dogies.
Origin
Late Middle English: compare with Low German wrangeln, frequentative of wrangen 'to struggle'; related to wring.