higgle
Americanverb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
- higgler noun
Etymology
Origin of higgle
First recorded in 1625–35; apparently variant of haggle
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.
I knew my master had fallen into despair when he took the herdsmen’s first offer without so much as a higgling nudge or a haggling speech.
From Literature
“With the short funds proposed, we shall fall miserably short,” Jefferson said, accusing legislators of “higgling” and failing to recognize “that knowledge is power.”
From Washington Post
There, forgetting the scenes he had just left, he would stand in the cold or rain, higgling with the butcher for a shilling.
From Project Gutenberg
How heartless the Chinese, who, before they save a drowning man, first higgle about the reward, and take pleasure in pestilence, famine, etc., because those who survive profit by them.
From Project Gutenberg
We offered large ransom, and after some higgling they agreed that three of our number might be released, but one must remain as a hostage; and I was pointed out as the one.
From Project Gutenberg
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.