haggle

[ hag-uhl ]
See synonyms for haggle on Thesaurus.com
verb (used without object),hag·gled, hag·gling.
  1. to bargain in a petty, quibbling, and often contentious manner: They spent hours haggling over the price of fish.

  2. to wrangle, dispute, or cavil: The senators haggled interminably over the proposed bill.

verb (used with object),hag·gled, hag·gling.
  1. to mangle in cutting; hack.

  2. to settle on by haggling.

  1. Archaic. to harass with wrangling or haggling.

noun
  1. the act of haggling; wrangle or dispute over terms.

Origin of haggle

1
1275–1325; Middle English haggen to cut, chop (<Old Norse hǫggva to hew) + -le

Other words from haggle

  • haggler, noun
  • un·hag·gled, adjective
  • un·hag·gling, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use haggle in a sentence

  • I catched a catfish and haggled him open with my saw, and towards sundown I started my camp fire and had supper.

    Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete | Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
  • For two hours then, Hale haggled and bargained, and at ten o'clock he went to the telegraph office.

  • He haggled long about the price, for form's sake, to act up to his part as Nicholas Korpanoff, a plain merchant of Irkutsk.

    Michael Strogoff | Jules Verne
  • Shann haggled off some ragged steaks while the wolverines feasted in earnest, carefully burying the head afterward.

    Storm Over Warlock | Andre Norton
  • It was a state of things so entirely incomprehensible to Mr Darvell, that, as he expressed it, “it fairly haggled him.”

    Our Frank | Amy Walton

British Dictionary definitions for haggle

haggle

/ (ˈhæɡəl) /


verb
  1. (intr often foll by over) to bargain or wrangle (over a price, terms of an agreement, etc); barter

  2. (tr) rare to hack

Origin of haggle

1
C16: of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse haggva to hew

Derived forms of haggle

  • haggler, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012