wrangler

American  

[rang-gler] / ˈræŋ glər /

noun

1. a cowboy, especially one in charge of saddle horses.

2. a person who wrangles or disputes.

3. (at Cambridge University, England) a person placed in the first class in the mathematics tripos.

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wrangler British  

/ ˈræŋɡlə /

noun

1. one who wrangles

2. a herder; cowboy

3. a person who handles or controls animals involved in the making of a film or television programme

   a snake wrangler

4. (at Cambridge University) a candidate who has obtained first-class honours in Part II of the mathematics tripos. The wrangler with the highest marks is called the senior wrangler

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Etymology

Origin of wrangler

1505–15; wrangle + -er ¹; wrangler ( def. 1 ) originally horse-wrangler, probably partial translation of Mexican Spanish caballerango groom, stable boy, with -erango suggesting wrangler

Example Sentences

Now it was off the hook, whipping in the air like a wrangler’s rope.

From Literature

Alongside her duties as a maths teacher and assistant head, Amanda has become chief puppy wrangler too.

From BBC

Celebrity crocodile wrangler Matt Wright will spend five months in prison for tampering with evidence after a helicopter crash that killed his co-star and left the pilot a paraplegic.

From BBC

When the event’s signature balloons were introduced in the late 1920s, wranglers simply released the larger-than-life characters into the sky.

From The Wall Street Journal

For now, the reporters are relegated to lower press — where a wrangler admitted in writing that they cannot speak on the record for the administration.

From Salon

Related Words

• breeder
• herder
• herdsman