jangle
Syllables: jang·le/ˈd͡ʒæŋɡəl/US/ˈd͡ʒeɪ̯ŋɡəl/
jangle verb: to cause (something) to make a rattling metallic sound.
Verb
jangle (third-person singular simple present jangles, present participle jangling, simple past and past participle jangled)
- To cause (something) to make a rattling metallic sound.
- Now ſee what noble and moſt ſoueraigne reaſon / Like ſweet bells iangled, out of time, and harſh, /That vnmatcht forme, and ſtature of blowne youth / Blaſted with extacie, […]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604...
- To express or say (something) in an argumentative or harsh manner.
- You always could / Find that soft spot in me when I was angry / You always could / Jangle everything that I would say / Until you got it your way1978, Ashford & Simpson, “You Always Could”, in Is It Still Good to Ya
- To irritate or jar (something).
- The sound from the next apartment jangled my nerves.
- To make a rattling metallic sound.
- A ſincere Heart that would ſerve God with his beſt, findeth more in a duty, than he could expect: and by Praying gets more of the fervency and Ardours of praying, as a Bell may be long a raiſing, but when it is up it jangleth not as it did at firſt.a. 1678, Tho[mas] Manton, “[The Transfiguration of Christ.] Sermon II.”, in Christs Temptation and Transfiguration, Practically Explained and Improved in Several Sermons, London: [s.n.], published...
- There is hardly a week without some saint in it who has to be commemorated, and often there are two in the same week, and sometimes three. I know when we have reached another saint, for then the church bells of the nearest village begin to jangle, and go on doing it every two hours.1920, [Elizabeth von Arnim], In the Mountains, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, page 43
- To speak in an angry or harsh manner.
- What jangleſt thou Jedburgh? thou jags for nought, / There ſhal a guilful groom dwell thee within, / The towre that thou truſts in, as the truth is, / Shal be traced with a trace, trow thou none other: […]1745, “The Prophesie of Waldhave”, in The Whole Prophecies of Scotland, England, France, Ireland and Denmark; […], Edinburgh; London: […] M[ary] Cooper, […], →OCLC, page 25
- Prussian Trenck, the poor subterranean Baron, jargons and jangles in an unmelodious manner.1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Fatherland in Danger”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, book III (The Girondins), page 184
- To quarrel verbally; to wrangle.
- Good witts will be iangling, but gentles agree, / This ciuill warre of wittes were much better vſed / On Nauar and his Bookmen, for heere tis abuſed.c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby...
- Homoiousion, Homoousion, vain logical jangle, then or before or at any time, may jangle itself out, and go whither and how it likes: this is the thing it all struggles to mean, if it would mean anything.1840 May 8, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture II. The Hero as Prophet. Mahomet: Islam.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 58
- Synonyms:
- squabble
- Of a person: to speak loudly or too much; to chatter, to prate; of a bird: to make a noisy chattering sound.
- It was uſual then about midnight, when there was no noiſe in the houſe, but all ſtill, to hear the two nightingales jangling, and talking with each other, and plainly imitating men's diſcourſes.1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of the Nightingale, and Other Soft-billed Song-birds”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume V, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor...
Noun
jangle (countable and uncountable, plural jangles)
- A rattling metallic sound; a clang.
- E'en as she spake they heard the musical jangle of sleigh-bells, / First far off, with a dreamy sound and faint in the distance, […]1873 August, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[I. Tales of a Wayside Inn.] The Theologian’s Tale. Elizabeth.”, in Aftermath, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and...
- Jessamy tugged the scrolled iron bellpull which hung down on one side of the gate. Somewhere behind, she could hear an answering jangle.1967, Barbara Sleigh, “The Holiday Aunt”, in Jessamy, 1st US edition, Indianapolis, Ind.; Kansas City, Mo.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 8
- The sound of people talking noisily.
- Arguing, contention, squabbling.
- [I]t may be juſtly ask't, whether Timothy by this here written might know what was to be knowne concerning the orders of Church-governours or no? If he might, then in ſuch a cleere text as this may we know too without further jangle; […]1642 (indicated as 1641), John Milton, “That Church Governement is Set Downe in Holy Scripture, and that to Say Otherwise is Untrue”, in The Reason of Church-governement Urg’d against Prelaty […]...
- But now Sir Peter if we have finish'd our daily Jangle I presume I may go to my engagement at Lady Sneerwell's?1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, II.i
- Synonyms:
- altercation, bickering
- A sound typified by undistorted, treble-heavy electric guitars, played in a droning chordal style, characteristic of 1960s folk rock and 1980s indie rock music.
- If you like ‘jangle guitar’—where the guitar parts are chordal, arpeggiated and rhythmic—listen to players like Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, Peter Buck with R.E.M. (Life’s Rich Pageant) or Johnny Marr with The Smiths (The Queen Is Dead).2008, Rikky Rooksby, Play Great Guitar: Brilliant Ideas for Getting More out of Your Six-string, Oxford, Oxfordshire: The Infinite Ideas Company, →ISBN, page 228
- Synonyms:
- jingle-jangle
jangle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
jangle in Hindi
- to jangle
- झमझमाना jhamajhmānā
jangle in Tamil
- சிறிய மெல்லிய, கோபமாகப் பேசு, எரிச்சலூட்டு, தகராறு
jangle in Urdu
- چھنکار, کرخت نا گوار آواز, لڑائی جھگڑا کرنا, بےربط آواز نکالنا, چھنکارنا
jangle in Bengali
- ঝনঝন করা, করানো, উচ্চশব্দে কলহ, ঝগড়াঝাটি করা
More languagesFewer languages
- jangle in Malayalam
- ചിലമ്പൽ, ചിലമ്പലുണ്ടാക്കുക
- jangle in Kannada
- ಕೂಗಾಡು, ಕಿರಿಚಾಡು, ಜಗಳಾಡು, ಗಲಾಟೆ ಮಾಡು
Examples of jangle in a sentence
- The time of year a twelvemonth past, / When Fred and I would meet, / We needs must jangle, till at last / We fought and I was beat.1896, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] XXV”, in A Shropshire Lad, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, The Bodley Head, published 1906...
- We seem to hear the jar, the jangle, the abuse, the irrelevant argument of an Athenian court-room—Philocleon in the Wasps will not have been the first to find delight in legal battles.1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VIII. Orestea. III: Eumenides”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, pages 222-223:
Synonyms of jangle
Forms of jangle
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | jangles |
| present participle | jangling |
| past participle | jangled |
| past | jangled |
| Noun | |
| plural | jangles |
Origin of jangle
From Middle English janglen (“to talk excessively, chatter; to talk idly, gossip; to nag; to complain, grumble; to argue, debate; to discuss, talk; to talk indistinctly, jabber; to make a noise or outcry; of a bird: to chatter, twitter”) [and other forms], from Old French jangler (“to chatter, gossip; to argue noisily; to bawl”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Old Dutch *jangelon (“to jeer”) (compare Middle Dutch jangelen (“to murmur, grumble, buzz, mutter, drone, simmer”), modern Dutch jengelen (“to whine, persistently nag, whimper”), though the Oxford English Dictionary finds this improbable) and ultimately imitative.
From Middle English jangle (“gossip, idle talk; a dispute”), from Anglo-Norman jangle and Old French jangle (“gossip, idle talk; a dispute”), from Old French jangler (“to chatter, gossip; to argue noisily; to bawl”): see further at etymology 1. Later uses are derived directly from the verb. Sense 3 (“sound typified by undistorted, treble-heavy electric guitars”) is said to derive from a line in the song Mr. Tambourine Man (1965) by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (born 1941): “Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me / In the jingle jangle morning, I’ll come following you.”
Words formed from jangle
Words that rhyme with jangle
Questions about jangle
- What does jangle mean?
- Jangle means to cause (something) to make a rattling metallic sound.
- What is jangle in Hindi?
- Jangle in Hindi is झमझमाना (jhamajhmānā). See Jangle meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use jangle in a sentence?
- The time of year a twelvemonth past, / When Fred and I would meet, / We needs must jangle, till at last / We fought and I was beat.
- What part of speech is jangle?
- Jangle can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce jangle?
- Jangle is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒæŋɡəl/.
- What is the past tense of jangle?
- The past tense of jangle is jangled.
Words near jangle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jangle (page history and authors); झमझमाना (Hindi) (page history and authors); jangle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jangle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jangle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jangle (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jangle (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-jangle.wav.
Cite this entry: “jangle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jangle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.