haggle
Americanverb (used without object)
-
haggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
haggled,
past participle, past
-
haggling
present participle
-
to bargain in a petty, quibbling, and often contentious manner.
They spent hours haggling over the price of fish.
-
to wrangle, dispute, or cavil.
The senators haggled interminably over the proposed bill.
verb (used with object)
-
haggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
haggled,
past participle, past
-
haggling
present participle
-
to mangle in cutting; hack.
-
to settle on by haggling.
-
Archaic. to harass with wrangling or haggling.
noun
verb
-
to bargain or wrangle (over a price, terms of an agreement, etc); barter
-
rare (tr) to hack
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
hagglesimple
-
hagglessimple
-
have haggledperfect
-
has haggledperfect
-
am hagglingprogressive
-
are hagglingprogressive
-
is hagglingprogressive
-
have been hagglingperfect progressive
-
has been hagglingperfect progressive
Past
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haggledsimple
-
had haggledperfect
-
was hagglingprogressive
-
were hagglingprogressive
-
had been hagglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of haggle
1275–1325; Middle English haggen to cut, chop (< Old Norse hǫggva to hew ) + -le
Explanation
If you want a great deal on a used TV, then you can try to haggle with the sellers to see if they’ll bring the price down. To haggle is to negotiate or argue over something, usually a price. You can haggle at a flea market or anywhere where the price of items is flexible. But haggle doesn’t always refer to price. You can haggle over a job, a contract, or who gets to ride in the front seat. Haggling is relatively aggressive behavior, and this word is closer in meaning to wrangle than it is to negotiate. You’ll rarely hear of anyone haggling quietly. Haggle implies an argument in which both parties want the best deal for themselves.
Vocabulary lists containing haggle
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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:
Emphasize that it would be better for them to be present — not only to help you, but also to haggle with shoppers and ensure their items are selling for prices they feel are appropriate.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
I snagged the seats, breaking into a sweat over the cost but hopeful I could haggle with United later about who would pay for it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 6, 2026
In the midst of Belém’s COP30 bedlam, environmentalists, economists, lobbyists and diplomats busily haggle at the global climate conference about what we can and cannot get away with in negotiations over Mother Nature.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025
In short: months and months of talking, as party leaders try to form a workable coalition and haggle over a government programme palatable to all sides.
From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2025
I watch in silence as they haggle in Urdu over the price of something I don’t want.
From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan
In “Between Riverside and Crazy,” a Black man haggles over the concessions he’s being offered by his former employer, the New York Police Department, eight years after he was shot by a white cop.
From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2023
It’s not going to be because she haggles over paragraphs in the bill.
From Slate ● Jun. 8, 2021
He haggles with a supermarket cashier, admires the paved roads, poses with a power mower to impress a cousin back home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2021
McGee notes that Washington often haggles as all sides try to cut a deal.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 1, 2020
The pawnbroker advances not more than a twentieth part of their value, and haggles over that.
From The Secrets of the Great City by James Dabney McCabe
A white-haired man in a Tommy Bahama shirt amiably haggled two dollars off his peaches.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
He has haggled about the price, which makes my brother think it’s a legit offer.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 10, 2025
The deal with the EU seeks to smoothen frictions in trade, but there are a whole load of details and specifics, timeframes and costs still to be haggled over and sorted.
From BBC ● May 19, 2025
As they haggled over the number of centrifuges Iran could build, they also defused potential crises.
From New York Times ● Apr. 15, 2024
Baba greeted acquaintances from the old country and I haggled with buyers over a dollar or two.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
Yet his attitude of constant haggling over everything that isn’t nailed down, and some things that were supposed to be, isn’t helpful.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
But first, he needs to hammer out a common stance between the parliament's different factions, which looked set to keep haggling until the last moment.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
Meanwhile, Carvana eschews traditional dealer tactics like commissioned salespeople, price haggling and profitable documentation fees tacked onto the transaction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
It could be that they didn’t want haggling over salary to tank their chances for a new job, researchers said.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 3, 2026
A gloom had settled over the place, and the haggling was mercenary, sharp-tongued, and often shouted.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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.
