tangle

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English

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EnglishWikipediahas an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key):/ˈtæŋ.ɡl̩/
  • Audio(US):(file)
  • Rhymes:-æŋɡəl

Etymology 1

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FromMiddle Englishtanglen,probably ofNorth Germanicorigin, compareSwedishtaggla(“to disorder”),Old Norseþǫngull,þang(“tangle; seaweed”),see Etymology 2 below.

Verb

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tangle(third-person singular simple presenttangles,present participletangling,simple past and past participletangled)

  1. (transitive)Tomixtogetherorintertwine.
    Synonyms:entangle,knot,mat,snarl
  2. (intransitive)To becomemixedtogetherorintertwined.
    Synonyms:dishevel,tousle
    Antonyms:untangle,unsnarl
    Her hair wastangledfrom a day in the wind.
    • 1960March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, inTrains Illustrated,page137:
      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 andtanglingpower and telephone lines.
  3. (intransitive,figurative)Toenter intoanargument,conflict,dispute,orfight.
    Synonyms:argue,conflict,dispute,fight
    Don'ttanglewith someone three times your size.
    Hetangledwith the law.
    • 2021February 3, Drachinifel, 19:47 from the start, inGuadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2: 2 USN)‎[1],archived fromthe originalon4 December 2022:
      Compared to thelasttime they'dtangledwith the U.S. Navy's carriers, the antiaircraft fire had been much,muchmore effective, even if the Wildcats hadn't doneparticularlywell in their intercepts. They couldn't know it, of course, but the officer aboardEnterprisewho'd recommended recarpeting the ship with 20-mm Oerlikonshad,at least partially, been listened to, and the effect on the Japanese Navy's elite aircrews had beendevastating.
    • 2021August 20, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Who Gets the L.L.C.? Inside a Silicon Valley Billionaire’s Divorce.”, inThe New York Times‎[2],→ISSN:
      After a few attempts at counseling, they separated in January 2015. Since then, they havetangledin the courts.
  4. (transitive)Tocatchandhold.
    Synonyms:ensnare,entrap
    • 1671,John Milton,“The First Book”, inParadise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes,London:[…]J[ohn]M[acock]for John Starkey[…],→OCLC,page 2:
      tangledin amorous nets
    • 1646,Richard Crashaw,Steps to the Temple:
      When my simple weakness strays, /Tangledin forbidden ways.
    • 2001,Christine A. Kelly,Tangled Up in Red, White, and Blue: New Social Movements in America,→ISBN:
      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 remaintangledin liberalism's web of pretentious institutions and betrayed promises is the reason for this battle from within.
    • 2004,Eve Ikuenobe-Otaigbe,Tangled,→ISBN,page80:
      He spent the night at a friend's place unable to sleep and wondering how he got himselftangledin this mess.
    • 2014,Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory,The House of the Four Winds,→ISBN:
      Why else would she havetangledhim in spells of illusion to get him to keep her company?
Derived terms
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

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tangle(pluraltangles)

  1. A tangled twisted mass.
  2. A complicated or confused state or condition.
    I tried to sort through thistangleand got nowhere.
    • 2013August 3, “Boundary problems”,inThe Economist,volume408,number8847:
      Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is atangletoo. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.
  3. An argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.
  4. (mathematics)A region of theprojectionof aknotsuch that the knot crosses its perimeter exactly four times.
  5. (medicine)A pairedhelicalfragment oftau proteinfound in anervecell and associated withAlzheimer's disease.
  6. A form of art which consists of sections filled with repetitive patterns.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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OfNorth Germanicorigin, such asDanishtangorSwedishtång,fromOld Norseþongull, þang.See alsoNorwegiantongul,Faroesetongul,Icelandicþöngull.

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Noun

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tangle(countableanduncountable,pluraltangles)

  2. Any large type ofseaweed,especially aspeciesofLaminaria.
    • 1850,[Alfred, Lord Tennyson],In Memoriam,London:Edward Moxon,[…],→OCLC,Canto X:
      […] if with thee the roaring wells
      ⁠Should gulf him fathom-deep in brine;
      ⁠And hands so often clasp’d in mine,
      Should toss withtangleand with shells.
    • 1917,“The Road to the Isles”, in Kenneth Macleod, editor,Songs of the Hebrides:
      You've never smelled thetangleo' the Isles.
  3. (in theplural)An instrument consisting essentially of an iron bar to which are attached swabs, or bundles of frayed rope, or other similar substances, used to capture starfishes, sea urchins, and other similar creatures living at the bottom of the sea.
  4. (Scotland)Any long hanging thing, even a lanky person.
Hyponyms
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Further reading

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Anagrams

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