Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an argument; thus argol-bargolous adj., argumentative.

1822		J. Galt Provost 194: No doubt his argol-bargolous disposition was an inheritance [F&H].
1851		Stonehaven Jrnl 7 Oct. 5/3: The deil a boddle mair wud he gie for’t than he had gien; but after a good deal of argle-bargle [...] he at last agreed.
1865		Belfast Morn. News 19 May 4/4: An ‘Argle Bargle’ and its Result. [...] Two valiant men, both short-tempered, commenced (to use an expressve Scotch phrase) to ‘argle-bargle’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 321: Mr Bloom with his argol bargol.
1935		E.F. Benson Mapp and Lucia (1984) 107: That’s sufficient for any committee that is going to do its work without any argle-bargle.
1941		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 84: A canny Scotch lass named McFargle / Without coaxing and such argy-bargle, / Would suck a man’s pud.
1945		Buckingham Advertiser 12 May 7/1: Care to come along and have an argle-bargle with Chuck?
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 55: A bit of argle-bargle with Mike.
1979		A. Rasporich Social Sciences ... in Canada 25: The important thing is to get at the juice and cut the argle bargle.
1997		So many porcupines, so little time 11 Dec. 🌐 [headline] NUCLEAR DETERRENCE: ARGLE-BARGLE OR FOOFRAH?
2002		Swaine’s World Tech News 1 Apr. 🌐 leaving the argle-bargle of the Microsoft trial to the capable hands of the lawyers, we focus this morning on the comedy of perfidy in the United States Senate, as it prepares to make innovation a crime.

2. (US) a nonsensical concoction.

2016		American Scholar 5 Dec. 🌐 How easy it would have been to capitalize on that fame with a ghostwritten autobiography, a dashed-off argle-bargle of fluff composed by a studio marketing man.
2021		NYRB 22 July 🌐 Neumann’s frat-boy antics, New Age argle-bargle, and cartoonish messianism.