wraggle

English

Etymology 1

Blend of wriggle +‎ waggle

Verb

wraggle (third-person singular simple present wraggles, present participle wraggling, simple past and past participle wraggled)

1. To wag about with a wiggling motion.
   • 1885, Thomas Middleton, Arthur Henry Bullen, The Works of Thomas Middleton:

     I going, he followed, and following fingered me, just as your worship does now; but I struggled and straggled, and wriggled and wraggled, and at last cried vale, valete, as I do now, with this fragment Of a rhyme,

   • 2007, Michael Hall, Wake up the White Rose, page 15:

     We must not fall into the spell of hubris and then justify our cimes and double standards while wraggling our fingers at those we disagree with for doing the same thing.

   • 2011, Dawn Powell, A Time to Be Born:

     Her husband took off his glasses and wraggled them back and forth as he beamed fondly at her.

   • 2014, James Al-Shamma, Sarah Ruhl: A Critical Study of the Plays, page 124:

     The “wriggling and wraggling” of the fish in their mother's guts evokes the seething waters that expelled Pilate's body.

Etymology 2

Blend of wrangle +‎ haggle

Verb

wraggle (third-person singular simple present wraggles, present participle wraggling, simple past and past participle wraggled)

1. To noisily try to convince others.
   • 2002, Robert E. Ficken, Washington Territory, page 113:

     "The crisis of Olympia's destiny will come and pass," Stevens fretted, "and the die be cast against her while her people are wraggling over... 'bonds.'"

   • 2002, Ngoran Constantine Tardzenyuy, Victims of Circumstances, page 35:

     'The business of water transportation knows no haggling and wraggling', said the boatman blatantly.

   • 2010, William H. G. Kingston, The Three Lieutenants, page 45:

     Amid the wildest hubbub produced by the shouting, wraggling, jabbering of the owners of the beasts, each man praising the qualities of his own animal as he dragged it to the front, the naval party managed to mount;

2. To pester.
   • 1936, Mammalia: - Volume 39, page 504:

     They represent the first record of Fur Seals in this area and it is intented that meteorological and hydrological conditions in the Tasman Sea during austral winter have wraggled to the north young Fur Seals from probably south-australian populations.

   • 1945, William Henry Hills, Robert Luce, The Writer - Volume 58, page 113:

     Remember you're tired from wraggling with those nasty customers all day, or pounding out dull, business letters.

   • 2015, John DeChancie, David Bischoff, Master of Spacetime:

     On the other hand, if he failed to make the pitiable noises Baron Skulkrak seemed to relish, then His Horribleness might surely apply further unpleasant techniques to wraggle that out of his victims.

Anagrams

• waggler