haggle
Americanverb (used without object)
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to bargain in a petty, quibbling, and often contentious manner.
They spent hours haggling over the price of fish.
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to wrangle, dispute, or cavil.
The senators haggled interminably over the proposed bill.
verb (used with object)
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to mangle in cutting; hack.
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to settle on by haggling.
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Archaic. to harass with wrangling or haggling.
noun
verb
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to bargain or wrangle (over a price, terms of an agreement, etc); barter
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rare (tr) to hack
Other Word Forms
- haggler noun
- unhaggled adjective
- unhaggling adjective
Etymology
Origin of haggle
1275–1325; Middle English haggen to cut, chop (< Old Norse hǫggva to hew ) + -le
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.
It’s an imperfect analogy, but a company can’t sell the U.S. military a missile and then haggle about acceptable targets.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026
In the midst of Belém’s COP30 bedlam, environmentalists, economists, lobbyists and diplomats busily haggle at the global climate conference about what we can and cannot get away with in negotiations over Mother Nature.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 19, 2025
In short: months and months of talking, as party leaders try to form a workable coalition and haggle over a government programme palatable to all sides.
From Barron's • Oct. 29, 2025
Since they haggle on behalf of health plans that collectively enroll hundreds of millions of Americans, these PBMs have considerable leverage, and should theoretically drive a hard bargain and win enormous discounts.
From Salon • May 31, 2025
Mama Tataba would haggle with the women at the door, and finally turn to us with her scrawny arms raised up like a boxing champ, holding up our dinner.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
