tangle
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtæŋ.ɡl̩/
rhymes: -æŋɡəl
Forms: form: tangles
form: tangling
form: tangled
form: tangled
Etymology: From Middle English tanglen, probably of North Germanic origin, compare Swedish taggla (“to disorder”), Old Norse þǫngull, þang (“tangle; seaweed”), see Etymology 2 below.
Senses: synonyms: entangle
knot
mat
snarl
glosses: To mix together or intertwine.
examples: text: Her hair was tangled from a day in the wind.
text: By the afternoon it seemed as if the storm had passed and that frost was setting in; but in the evening the wind rose to gale force, bringing telegraph poles down like skittles and tangling power and telephone lines.
ref: 1960 March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 137:
synonyms: dishevel
tousle
antonyms: untangle
unsnarl
glosses: To become mixed together or intertwined.
examples: text: Don't tangle with someone three times your size.
text: He tangled with the law.
text: Compared to the last time they'd tangled with the U.S. Navy's carriers, the antiaircraft fire had been much, much more effective, even if the Wildcats hadn't done particularly well in their intercepts. They couldn't know it, of course, but the officer aboard Enterprise who'd recommended recarpeting the ship with 20-mm Oerlikons had, at least partially, been listened to, and the effect on the Japanese Navy's elite aircrews had been devastating.
ref: 2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 19:47 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 04 Dec 2022:
text: After a few attempts at counseling, they separated in January 2015. Since then, they have tangled in the courts.
ref: 2021 August 20, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Who Gets the L.L.C.? Inside a Silicon Valley Billionaire’s Divorce.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
synonyms: argue
conflict
dispute
fight
glosses: To enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.
examples: text: tangled in amorous nets
ref: 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 2:
text: When my simple weakness strays, / Tangled in forbidden ways.
ref: 1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple:
text: This is a book about the potential for the reclamation, reform, and enlightened transformation of the most expansive elements of the liberal tradition— that social and economic justice remain tangled in liberalism's web of pretentious institutions and betrayed promises is the reason for this battle from within.
ref: 2001, Christine A. Kelly, Tangled Up in Red, White, and Blue: New Social Movements in America, →ISBN:
text: He spent the night at a friend's place unable to sleep and wondering how he got himself tangled in this mess.
ref: 2004, Eve Ikuenobe-Otaigbe, Tangled, →ISBN, page 80:
text: Why else would she have tangled him in spells of illusion to get him to keep her company?
ref: 2014, Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory, The House of the Four Winds, →ISBN:
synonyms: ensnare
entrap
glosses: To catch and hold.
Derived terms: betangle
entangle
it takes two to tangle
tanglelegs