Sc. and north. [f. WARBLE v.] A struggle, tussle; a wrestling bout.
1819. [Rennie], St. Patrick, I. xi. 166. Though I had got a fell crunt ahint the haffit, I wan up wi’ a warsle.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xix. They quarrelled, as you saw, on the St. Valentine’s Even, and had a warstle.
1864. Latto, Tam. Bodkin, xix. 191. At length wi’ a sair warsel he did get into the bed.
1869. A. Macdonald, Love, Law & Theol., iii. 46. He had thrown him doun in a warstle.
b. fig.
1792. Burns, My Wife’s a winsome wee Thing, ii. The warld’s wrack we share o’t, The warstle and the care o’t.
1862. in Hawick Archaeol. Soc. Trans. (1868), 40. The minister had a weary warsle wi’ a wersh discource.
1888. D. Grant, Sc. Stories, 6. I canna say I’m sorry that the weary warsle o’ life is sae nearly owre.
