slang and colloq. [Of uncertain origin.
First recorded, as printers’ slang, in 1888; current among soldiers in the war of 1914–18, and hence in general colloquial use. There is no evidence of any connection with the northerly dialect word WANGLE v.1 Probably, like many other slang words, it was formed involuntarily, under the influence of an obscure sense of phonetic symbolism; the suggestion may have come from WAGGLE v.]
trans. To accomplish (something) in an irregular way by scheming or contrivance; to bring about or obtain by indirect or insidious means (something not obtainable openly); to manipulate, ‘fake’ (an account, report, prices). Hence Wangler, one who ‘wangles.’ Wangling vbl. sb.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., Wangle, a slang term used by printers to express arranging or ‘faking’ matters to one’s own satisfaction or convenience.
1911. Standard, 12 July, 10. He denied that he had ever been asked by a driver to ‘fake’ a meter although he had heard banter in the garage about the ‘wangling’ of meters.
1917. Edin. Rev., July, 45. No market is ever ‘free’: probe it deep enough, and … monopolies will … be found, in many cases deliberately ‘wangling’ prices and limiting production to sustain them.
1917. Bulletin, 28 Dec., 3/2. He had come in from the North Atlantic Cruiser Patrol, and when in home waters had ‘wangled’ a few days’ leave.
1918. ‘B. Cable,’ Air Men o’ War, xi. 143. He had been … planning … how to apply and how to get quickly through his training, and ways of wangling it to get to this Squadron.
1920. Francis Yeats Brown, in Blackw. Mag., June, 790/1. We took it in turns to stay in the garden against the return of the motor wanglers.
