haggle
Americanverb (used without object)
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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)
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to mangle in cutting; hack.
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to settle on by haggling.
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Archaic. to harass with wrangling or haggling.
noun
verb
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to bargain or wrangle (over a price, terms of an agreement, etc); barter
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rare (tr) to hack
Other Word Forms
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.
Car buyers might be getting less inclined to haggle, or perhaps just don’t get as much traction in negotiations as they used to.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 2, 2026
“Each piece represents a store we love, a lucky find or a successful haggle that ended with us carrying home something with history.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 28, 2026
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
Since they haggle on behalf of health plans that collectively enroll hundreds of millions of Americans, these PBMs have considerable leverage, and should theoretically drive a hard bargain and win enormous discounts.
From Salon • May 31, 2025
Stannis rubbed the back of his neck, “You haggle like a crone with a codfish, Lord Snow. Did Ned Stark father you on some fishwife? How many men?”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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.
