haggle

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

1570s, "to cut unevenly" (implied in haggler), frequentative of Middle English haggen (to chop), variant of hacken (to hack), equivalent to hack +‎ -le. Sense of "argue about price" first recorded c.1600, probably from notion of chopping away.[1]

Pronunciation

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

haggle (third-person singular simple present haggles, present participle haggling, simple past and past participle haggled)

  1. (intransitive) To argue for a better deal, especially over prices with a seller.
    • 2020, Abi Daré, The Girl With The Louding Voice, Sceptre, page 184:
      ‘I am pretty useless at haggling. Haggling means asking the seller to sell stuff below the asking price.’
    I haggled for a better price because the original price was too high.
  2. (transitive) To hack (cut crudely)
  3. To stick at small matters; to chaffer; to higgle.
    • June 30, 1784, Horace Walpole, letter to the Hon. Henry Seymour Conway
      Royalty and science never haggled about the value of blood.

Synonyms

[edit]
  • (to argue for a better deal): wrangle

Derived terms

[edit]

Translations

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “haggle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.