wrangler

English

wrangler (plural wranglers)

Someone who wrangles or corrals.
A brawler or disputant.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
  The Seas and Windes (old Wranglers) tooke a Truce, / And did him ſeruice; he touch'd the Ports desir'd,
(US) A cowboy who takes care of saddle horses.
- 1907, Stewart Edward White, chapter 5, in Arizona Nights‎:
  Even as I stretched my arms and shivered a little, the two wranglers threw down their tin plates with a clatter, mounted horses and rode away in the direction of the thousand acres or so known as the pasture.
(US) A cowboy who takes care of tourists.
An animal handler or trainer.
(UK, education, Cambridge University) A student who has completed the third year of the mathematical tripos with first-class honours.
- 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXXIV, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
  During all this excursion, she condescended to say civil things to him: she quoted Italian and French poetry to the poor bewildered lad, and persisted that he was a fine scholar, and was perfectly sure he would gain a gold medal, and be a Senior Wrangler.
(US, education, New England, derogatory) A special education teacher.
(Texas) A groom.

In the Cambridge sense, the student taking the first place in the class is the senior wrangler, the second is the second wrangler, and so on.