Word: unravel Part of Speech: verb Etymology: PIE word *h₂énti From un- (suffix denoting the inverse of the specified action) + ravel. cognates * Dutch ontrafelen (“to unravel”) Pronunciation: /(ˌ)ʌnˈɹævəl/, /(ˌ)ʌnˈɹavəl/, /(ˌ)ʊnˈɹavəl/, /ˌʌnˈɹævəl/, /ˌɐnˈɹævəl/ 1. To cause (something) to no longer be ravelled or tangled; to disentangle, to untangle. Labels: transitive Example: Mother couldn’t unravel the ball of wool after the cat had played with it. Example: [S]he taking as the watchword of his true patience, vnraueld the bottome [i.e., ball of thread] of her frailtie at length, […] 2. To separate the threads of (something knitted or woven, such as clothing or fabric). Labels: transitive Example: Stop playing with the seam of the tablecloth! You’ll unravel it. Example: [B]e not like her who unravelleth into strands the thread which she had strongly spun, by taking your oaths with mutual perfidy. 3. To separate the connected or united parts of (something); to throw (something) into disorder; to confound, to confuse, to disintegrate. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: to unravel the broad consensus which was created Example: to unravel the compromise achieved in the treaty 4. To clear (something) from complication or difficulty; to investigate and solve (a mystery, a problem, etc.); to disentangle, to unfold, to work out. Labels: also, figuratively, reflexive, transitive Example: to unravel the confusion to unravel a plot Example: You muſt unravell agen, and make your vvife / Beleeve you did but try her. 5. To reverse or undo (something); to annul, to negate. Labels: figuratively, obsolete, transitive Example: For everie time thou admitſt mee after, to thy / Pillovv, I'le ſtrike of an hundred pound, / Till all the debts be unravel'd: […] Example: O thou cruel Son of an / Inhumane Father! all my deſigns are ruin'd / And unravell'd by this blovv. / No pleaſure novv is left in me but Revenge. 6. To become no longer ravelled or tangled. Labels: intransitive 7. Of threads: to become separated from something knitted or woven, such as clothing or fabric; also, of something knitted or woven: to separate into threads; to come apart. Labels: intransitive Example: [C]onſider him as a King, and what favours hath he beſtowed on his Subjects! and then, that his curteſies might not unravell or fret out, hath bound them with a ſtrong border and a rich fringe, a Triennial Parliament. Example: [T]he burning threads / Of woven cloud unravel in pale air: […] 8. Of a thing: to have its connected or united parts separated; to be thrown into disorder; to become confused or undone; to collapse. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: [W]hen men doe not iſhue out of a danger by a doore of Gods opening unto them, but breake through the vvall, (as Jerome by perjury) by violent and unvvarrantable vvayes, their minds are daily haunted vvith ſcruples and perplexities, even ſometimes to dolefull diſtraction; beſides, ſuch eſcapes never grovv proſperous, rather eaſing than curing, and the comfort got by them unraueleth againe, as it hapned in Jerome of Prague. Example: [Y]ou may be ſure his [the Antichrist's] cunning and vvicked Emiſſaries vvill unfailingly aſſiſt, actuate and manage this Schiſm above all the reſt, it making the Reformation look ſo odiouſly, ridiculouſly and dangerouſly, as if to leave the Church of Rome vvere at laſt to unravel into a mere canting Paganiſm.