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You may have noticed a striking resemblance between wangle and wrangle, both of which have a sense meaning “to obtain or finagle.” But the two do not share a common history: wrangle is centuries older than wangle, and despite their overlap in both meaning and appearance, wangle is believed to have evolved separately by way of waggle, meaning “to move from side to side.” (Wrangle, by contrast, comes from the Old High German word ringan, meaning “to struggle.”) It’s possible, though, that wangle saved the “obtain” sense of wrangle from the brink of obsolescence—until recent decades, this usage had all but disappeared, and its revival may very well have been influenced by wangle. We wish we could wangle conclusive evidence to support this theory, but alas!
Synonyms
Examples of wangle in a Sentence
Andy Greenberg, WIRED, 31 July 2016
To wangle a slice of the $40 billion Saudi Arabia plans to invest in Africa.
—Matthew T. Page, TIME, 10 May 2024
The production has managed to wangle an imposing location for the Visitor’s antics to unfold: one of those huge London statement homes made almost entirely of glass, like a sort of gigantic Cubist fishbowl.
—Catherine Bray, Variety, 17 Feb. 2024
That very day in 1963, Mr. Epstein had borrowed his stepfather’s car and driven from New York City to the Cornell campus in upstate Ithaca, N.Y., to try to wangle his way back into school after having flunked out seven years earlier.
—Sam Roberts, New York Times, 11 Jan. 2024
This theory is possible; a crooked or inept employee might have taken the file, wangled it to serve Ariely’s hypothesis, and then re-sent it using a non-Hartford e-mail address.
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2023
Clearly, the few evolutionary changes the domestic cat has made have been the right ones to wangle their way into people’s hearts and homes.
—Jonathan Losos, Discover Magazine, 10 Aug. 2023
Sidney — who has just wangled a deal to buy (on credit) an arty neighborhood newspaper — at first rejects Wally’s entreaties for an endorsement.
—Peter Marks, Washington Post, 28 Feb. 2023
Those who were primed with power were more likely to lie about their scores to wangle extra tickets.
—Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 27 Apr. 2010
Dictionary Entries Near wangle
Cite this Entry
“Wangle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wangle. Accessed 27 Nov. 2024.
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