naggles

Verb

naggle (third-person singular simple present naggles, present participle naggling, simple past and past participle naggled)

1. (obsolete) To toss the head or cause to toss the head.
   • On the Pieces last Sunday they made such a rout, i That the scurrilous author would soon be found out, Then they naggled their heads, while their tails flew about.1780, Timmy Straightforward (pseud.), A Third Letter from Timmy Straightforward to his Mother, page 7
2. To niggle; to irritate or bother continually or repeatedly.
   • Nothing obscene, for goodness sake, but just at the bare threshold of audibility, so that it niggles and naggles and bothers.1969, Harlan Ellison, The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, page 153
3. To haggle; to negotiate argumentatively.
   • Ye see the wives naggle aboot tripe and sheep heeds , Or washing their greens at a fountain, Where the young Nuns used to be telling their beads, And had nowt but thor sins to be countin';1889 February, “The New Markets”, in The Monthly Chronicle of North-country Lore and Legend, volume 3, number 24, page 83
4. (intransitive) To nag, carp, or quarrel.
   • Many instances occur daily in which married people go on naggling at one another—naggle, naggle, until they get into a perfect storm—though both would be heartily ashamed for any third party to know what they were quarrelling about.1861, John Cale Miller, Courtship and Marriage, page 28
5. (transitive) To harass or scold.
   • I 'll go for my paw if folks naggle me ; an' nobody shall tech me !1899, St. Nicholas - Volume 26, Part 1, page 396
6. To make many minor adjustments to; to fiddle with.
   • You can niggle and naggle at any set of documents and always imply that the set you might have put together would have been ever so much better.1974, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society

See all 8 meanings of naggle