caffle

Syllables: caf·fleUK/ˈkæfl̩/US/ˈkæf(ə)l/

caffle verb: to wrangle, to argue, to quarrel.

Verb

caffle (third-person singular simple present caffles, present participle caffling, simple past and past participle caffled)

(Ireland, Northern England, dialectal) To wrangle, to argue, to quarrel.
(Ireland, Northern England, dialectal) To entangle.
(Northern England, dialectal) To prevaricate; to change one's mind.
- Neither snow nor rain could prevent him from going, for he hated caffling.1876, Memoir Rev. J. Gregory, page 25, quoted in the EDD
- Mr. W—, after some caffling, declared he did not say so and so.1886, Notes and Queries, page 67
(Ireland, Northern England, dialectal) To cheat.

An' he caffles, an' slews, an' weant saay nowt stright oot aboot munny; an' thaay niver gets to knaw how things is to be left.1889, Mabel Geraldine W. Peacock, North Lincolnshire dialect. Taales fra Linkisheere, page 38:
He caffled a bit when he was afoore th' magistrates, bud it were to noä good.1889, Edward Peacock, A Glossary of Words Used in the Wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lincolnshire, page 89:

third-person singular present	caffles
present participle	caffling
past participle	caffled
past	caffled

Alteration of cavil.

What does caffle mean?: Caffle means to wrangle, to argue, to quarrel.
How do you use caffle in a sentence?: An' he caffles, an' slews, an' weant saay nowt stright oot aboot munny; an' thaay niver gets to knaw how things is to be left.
What part of speech is caffle?: Caffle is a verb.
How do you pronounce caffle?: Caffle is pronounced /ˈkæfl̩/ (UK).
What is the past tense of caffle?: The past tense of caffle is caffled.

Adapted from Wiktionary: caffle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “caffle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/caffle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.