Tangle
['tæŋg(ə)l] or ['tæŋɡl]
Definition
(noun.) something jumbled or confused; 'a tangle of government regulations'.
(noun.) a twisted and tangled mass that is highly interwoven; 'they carved their way through the tangle of vines'.
Edited by Donnie--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) To unite or knit together confusedly; to interweave or interlock, as threads, so as to make it difficult to unravel the knot; to entangle; to ravel.
(n.) To involve; to insnare; to entrap; as, to be tangled in lies.
(v. i.) To be entangled or united confusedly; to get in a tangle.
(n.) Any large blackish seaweed, especially the Laminaria saccharina. See Kelp.
(v.) A knot of threads, or other thing, united confusedly, or so interwoven as not to be easily disengaged; a snarl; as, hair or yarn in tangles; a tangle of vines and briers. Used also figuratively.
(v.) 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.
Checked by Abram
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Interweave (confusedly), intertwine, complicate, perplex, snarl, entangle.
n. Complication, intricacy, perplexity, snarl.
Typist: Natalie
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Intertwist, interlock, snarl, complicate, insnare, mat
ANT:Unravel, disentangle, untwine
Checked by Aida
Definition
n. a knot of things united confusedly: an edible seaweed: a perplexity complication: (Scot.) any long hanging thing even a lank person: an apparatus for dredging.—v.t. to unite together confusedly: to interweave: to ensnare entangle.—n. Tang′lefoot (U.S.) whisky &c.—adj. Tang′lesome (prov.) quarrelsome.—adv. Tang′lingly.—adj. Tang′ly in a tangle: united confusedly: covered with tangle or seaweed.
Edited by Elena
Examples
- Their eyes glittered through their tangle of hair, their naked nostrils were full of shadow. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Here we cannot trace out the tangle of alliances and betrayals that ended in the ascendancy of this Octavian, the adopted heir of Julius C?sar. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The tangle of motives and facts and ideas was incredible. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Mlud, says Mr. Tangle. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- I hardly know which is myself and which the butcher, we are always in such a tangle and tussle, knocking about upon the trodden grass. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Her calm pale face, with dim, wide-opened blue eyes, looked upward from amid a great tangle of golden hair. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Mr. Tangle, says the Lord High Chancellor, latterly something restless under the eloquence of that learned gentleman. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Think of mass and a sermon away down in those tangled caverns under ground! Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- There was a window looking on to the tangled front garden. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- I feel all tangled and messed up, and I CAN'T get straight anyhow. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- The tangled mass was thrown into the background. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Instead of standing up straight and separated to be cut the wheat would more often come in great bunches, twisting about the sickles and getting tangled in the machinery. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- But the gropings are there,--vastly confused in the tangled strains of the nation's interests. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- But I shall come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I should like to see the solution of so tangled a business. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- But in such striking-out he tangles his arms, pulls strong on the slip-knot, and it runs home. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I have not done that because this rational procedure inverts the natural order of things and develops all kinds of theoretical tangles and pseudo-problems. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The roof and chimney of Venn's caravan showed behind the tracery and tangles of the brake. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
Edited by Astor