tangle

CEFRB2

/ˈtæŋ.ɡəl/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
A confused mass of twisted things.
02
verb
To twist things together in a confused way.

Examples

Don't pull, or you'll tangle the threads.
I wish I could tangle your hair into beautiful braids.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Also pronounced

[ˈtæŋ.ɡəl] ~ [ˈtæŋ.ɡl̩]
[ˈtʰeɪ̯ŋɡəl] ~ [ˈtʰeɪ̯ŋɡl̩]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

To become mixed together or intertwined.
To enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.

verb

Extra meaning

To mix together or intertwine.

More examples

In context

Don't tangle with someone three times your size.
Her hair was tangled from a day in the wind.
He tangled with the law.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

You should be careful not to blank the wires when you put them away.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

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.
1960 March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 137
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 a tangle too. 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.
2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
When my simple weakness strays, / Tangled in forbidden ways.
1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple
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.
2001, Christine A. Kelly, Tangled Up in Red, White, and Blue: New Social Movements in America, →ISBN
He spent the night at a friend's place unable to sleep and wondering how he got himself tangled in this mess.
2004, Eve Ikuenobe-Otaigbe, Tangled, →ISBN, page 80

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Origin

noun

From Middle English tanglen, probably of North Germanic origin, compare Swedish taggla (“to disorder”), Old Norse þǫngull, þang (“tangle; seaweed”), see Etymology 2 below.

Deep Dive

noun

verb

More examples

Related

Quick test

You should be careful not to blank— the wires when you put them away.

Nearby

Origin

noun

You should be careful not to blank the wires when you put them away.