wrangle
Americanverb (used without object)
-
wrangles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wrangled,
past participle, past
-
wrangling
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
wrangles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wrangled,
past participle, past
-
wrangling
present participle
-
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
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(tr) to herd (cattle or horses)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wranglesimple
-
wranglessimple
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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:
All presidents wrangle with their critics in and out of the press.
From Slate ● Sep. 28, 2026
The former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is still in a wrangle with the taxman.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 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
She needs to figure out how to wrangle it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 16, 2026
But for now, he left him to wrangle the neighborhood talent.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Shein’s valuation has declined sharply since hitting $100 billion in 2022, as it wrangles with increasing competition from rivals such as Temu and persistent uncertainty from escalating trade restrictions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Atop the aerial ladder of a bright red fire engine, a firefighter wrangles a hose.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2025
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
If he wrangles a competitive media-rights package that keeps the conference together, no one will care about the timeline or hypothetical deadlines that were missed.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 21, 2023
Frau Büchner wrangles impossible harmonies from our voices.
From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper
Police officers followed and cornered the horse on motorbikes, before it was wrangled by a lasso-carrying cowboy.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
“Anyone who has wrangled a scared cat knows it’s not just like picking up a dog and holding them,” Mathers said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
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
Tehran and Washington have wrangled for years over influence in Iraq.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 8, 2026
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 club still insists it is innocent of the financial rule-breaking charges first brought against it by the Premier League in 2023, and can appeal, so the legal wrangling is far from over.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Additional land wrangling remained after the museum’s approval.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
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
Shorty emerges, wrangling an armload of fur coats.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
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.
