[W]evvrangled out of the King ten quarters of Corne for a copper Kettel, the vvhich the Preſident preceiving him much to affect, valued it at a much greater rate;[…]
[H]e has taken in, Sir, the vvhole ſubject,—[…] begging, borrovving, and ſtealing, as he vvent along, all that had been vvrote orvvrangled thereupon in the ſchools and porticos of the learned;[…]
2010 October 3, Sean Gordon, “Gionta settles in, stands out”, inThe Globe and Mail[2], Toronto, Ont.: The Globe and Mail Inc.,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on15 June 2021:
Wrangling a chaotic group of five-year-olds is unnerving enough without the added stress of a famous NHLer [Brian Gionta] in the room helping lace his son’s skates.
ToVVrangle the Devil, out of the Country, vvill be truly a Nevv Experiment! Alas, vve are not Avvare of theDevil, if vve do not think, that he aims at Enflaming us one againſt another; & ſhall vve ſuffer our ſelves to beDevil-Ridden? or, by anyVnadviſableneſs, contribute unto the VVidening of our Breaches?
1649 April 20 (date written; Gregorian calendar),Robert Sanderson, “[Appendix, No. 5.] Letter I. Dr. Sanderson to N. N., Respecting the Relative Merits of the Presbyterians and the Independents”, inGeorge D’Oyly,The Life ofWilliam Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury,[…], volume II, London:John Murray,[…], published1821,→OCLC,page442:
When we havewrangled ourselves as long as our wits and strengths will serve us, the honest, downright sober English Protestant will be found, in the end, the man in the safest way, and by the surest line:[…]
1574,John Whitgift, “Of Matters Touching Baptism. Tract XVI.[Of the Parties that are to be Baptised. Chapter iv. The First Division.]”, in John Ayre, editor,The Works of John Whitgift, D.D.[…] The Third Portion, Containing the Defence of the Answer to the Admonition, against the Reply ofThomas Cartwright: Tractates XI–XXIII. Sermons, Selected Letters, &c., Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:[…]University Press, published1853,→OCLC,page134:
[A]fter his old manner, hewrangleth and quarrelleth.
Mens naturesvvrangle with inferior things, / Tho great ones are the obiect,[…]
1607,Terence, “Andria”, inR[ichard] B[ernard], transl.,Terence in English. Fabulæ Comici Facetissimi et Elegantissimi Poetæ Terentii Omnes Anglicæ Factæ,[…] [The Comic Tales of the Most Witty and Elegant Poet Terence, All Done in English,[…]], 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:[…] Iohannis Legat,→OCLC, act IV, scene i,page71:
There vvas a contention of vvordes betvvixt you & your father erevvhile. Thou vvert at vvords, orvvrangledſt vvith him right novv.
1609,Thomas Dekker, “The Guls Horne-booke:[…]: Chap. I. The Old World, & the New Weighed Together:[…].”, inAlexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor,The Non-dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker.[…] (The Huth Library), volume II, London, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire:[…] [Hazell, Watson, & Viney] for private circulation only, published1885,→OCLC,page210:
Did man, (thinke you) comewrangling into the world, about no better matters, then all his lifetime to make priuy ſearches in Burchin lane for Whalebone doublets, or for pies ofNightingale tongues inHeliogabalus his kitchin?
Vpon the eighth of Aprill vve vvent aboord the Trinity, and hoiſſed ſailes forSidon: the vvindes fauourable, and the ſeas compoſed; but anon they began tovvrangle, and vve to ſuffer.
1619,Two Wise Men and All the Rest Fooles: Or A Comicall Morall, Censuring the Follies of this Age,[…],[London]:[s.n.],→OCLC, act I, scene i,page10:
[H]ee cavelleth orvvrangleth not vvith any in this kind: therefore you are a lying fellovv.
[1633],George Herbert, “Humilitie”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor,The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:[…] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green,[…],→OCLC,page62:
[T]here vve ſit, / for a bit, / till vve fiſh intangle. /[…] / [W]e ſit ſtill, / vvatch our quill, / Fiſhers muſt notrangle.
1716 May 15 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 39. Friday, May 4.[1716.]”, inThe Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq;[…], volume IV, London:[…]Jacob Tonson,[…], published1721,→OCLC,pages501–502:
He did not knovv vvhat it vvas tovvrangle on indifferent points, to triumph in the ſuperiority of his underſtanding, or to be ſupercilious on the ſide of truth.
1725, [Daniel Defoe], “Part II”, inA New Voyage Round the World, by a Course Never Sailed before.[…], London:[…] A[rthur] Bettesworth,[…]; and W. Mears,[…],→OCLC,page202:
[T]he Captain and the other ſtaid vvith the Men, vvho vvere very unruly, and ever and anon quarrelling andvvrangling about their VVealth, vvhich, indeed, vvas very conſiderable;[…]
VVhat ſpirits vvere his, vvhat vvit and vvhat vvhim, / Novv breaking a jeſt, and novv breaking a limb; / Novvrangling and grumbling to keep up the ball, / Novv teazing and vexing, yet laughing at all?
[T]hey sometimeswrangle with her for an hour together under my study window, like three sea-gulls screaming and sputtering in a gale of wind.
1896,[Vyasa], chapter XXXI, in[anonymous], transl., edited by Manmatha Nath Dutt,A Prose English Translation ofSrimadbhagavatam, book I, Calcutta, West Bengal:[…] H. C. Dass,[…],→OCLC,page150:
Then this person influenced by desire, on account of his ever-increasing anger and sense of self-importance,wrangleth with others in order to bring destruction down upon himself.
A suitable attire the horses shew; / Their golden bits keepwrangling as they go;[…]
a.1883 (date written; first published1883 January), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Monologue”, inMichael Angelo: A Dramatic Poem, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.:Houghton, Mifflin and Company[…], published1884,→OCLC, part first,page20:
Distant and near and low and loud the bells, / Dominican, Benedictine, and Franciscan, / Jangle andwrangle in their airy towers, / Discordant as the brotherhoods themselves / In their dim cloisters.
1566, Iohn Martiall [i.e.,John Marshall], “That the Apostles and Fathers of the Primitive Churche Blessed Them Selves, &c. The Fifth Article.”, inA Replie to M.Calfhills Blasphemous Answer Made against the Treatise of the Crosse,[…], Louvain:[…] Iohn Bogard[…],→OCLC; reprinted asD[avid] M[cGregor] Rogers, editor,A Replie to M. Calfhills Blasphemous Answer 1566 (English Recusant Literature 1558–1640;203), Ilkley, Yorkshire, London: The Scolar Press,1974,→ISBN,folio 145, recto:
Forſoothe, that vvhen he had concluded that vve muſt no liue by examples, but by lavves, he might make ſimple ſoules beleaue, that they ought not follovve the exãples of their holy forefathers, in bleſsing them ſelues, but to haue the name of the lavve in their mouthes and do nothing leſſe thã that the lavve biddeth them to doe. And to bring that to paſſe ſee hovve hevvrangleth.
VVher thePhiloſophers as they think ſcorne to delight, ſo muſt they be content little to mooue; ſauingvvrangling vvhetherVirtue be the chiefe or the onely good;[…]
1628,Jos[eph] Hall, “The Newnesse of the Uniuersall Head-ship of the Bishop of Rome”, inThe Olde Religion: A Treatise, wherin is Laid Downe the True State of the Difference betwixt the Reformed, and Romane Church;[…], London:[…]W[illiam] S[tansby] forNathaniell Butter andRichard Hawkings,→OCLC, section I,page174:
But[Severin]Biniusvvrangleth here; Can vve blame him vvhen the free-hold of their Great Miſtreſſe is ſo neerely touched?
1657,John Bunyan, “ A Vindication of Gospel Truths Opened, According to the Scriptures;[…]”, inHenry Stebbing, editor,The Entire Works of John Bunyan,[…], volume I, London:James S[prent] Virtue,[…], published1863,→OCLC,page101, column 2:
At this thou alsowranglest, because I said that "every spirit that confesseth not thatJesus Christ, who was with the Father before the world was, did in the appointed time of the Father come into the world, take a body upon him, and was very man as well as very God; and did in that very body suffer what did belong to the sons of men," &c.
But when I turn away, / Thou, willing me to stay, / Wooest not, nor vainlywranglest; / But, looking fixedly the while, / All my bounding heart entanglest, / In a golden-netted smile;[…]
For in that you would your awardship shuld take none effect, you shew your selfe nothing inclinable to the redresse of your brothers vnright dealinge wyth an honeste poore man, which hath bene redye at your request to doo you pleasure with his things, or els he had neuer come into thiswrāgle for his own goods with your brother.
[1732 March 6 (Gregorian calendar; date written),[Jonathan Swift],Considerations upon Two Bills Sent Down from the R[ight] H[onourable] the H[ouse] of L[ords] to the H[onoura]ble H[ouse] of C[ommons of Ireland] Relating to the Clergy of I[relan]d, London:[…] A. Moore,[…], published1732,→OCLC,page18:
This vvould of Neceſſity, breed an infinite Number ofBrangles and litigious Suits in the Spiritual Courts, and put the vvretched Paſtor at perpetual Variance vvith his vvhole Pariſh.]
For many people this is an astonishing moment of hope, a moment they thought would never come. And there are many of course who feel a sense of anxiety and loss. And then of course there is a third group – perhaps the biggest – who had started to worry that the whole politicalwrangle would never come to an end. I understand all those feelings and our job as the government – my job – is to bring this country together now and take us forward.
None can hate / So much as I any kind ofwrangle; / And yet, such is my folly, or my fate, / I always knock my head against some angle / About the present, past, or future state:[…]
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,June 2022;“wrangle,v.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.