tangle
pronunciation
How to pronounce tangle in British English:
UK [ˈtæŋɡl]
How to pronounce tangle in American English:
US [ˈtæŋɡl]
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- Noun:
- a twisted and tangled mass that is highly interwoven
- something jumbled or confused
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- Verb:
- force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action
- tangle or complicate
- disarrange or rumple; dishevel
- twist together or entwine into a confusing mass
Word Origin
- tangle (n.)
- 1610s, "a tangled condition, a snarl of threads," from tangle (v.).
- tangle (v.)
- mid-14c., nasalized variant of tagilen "to involve in a difficult situation, entangle," from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Swedish taggla "to disorder," Old Norse þongull "seaweed"), from Proto-Germanic *thangul- (cognates: Frisian tung, Dutch tang, German Tang "seaweed"); thus the original sense of the root evidently was "seaweed" as something that entangles (itself, or oars, or fishes, or nets). "The development of such a verb from a noun of limited use like tangle 1 is somewhat remarkable, and needs confirmation" [Century Dictionary]. In reference to material things, from c. 1500. Meaning "to fight with" is American English, first recorded 1928. Related: Tangled; tangling. Tanglefoot (1859) was Western American English slang for "strong whiskey."
Example
- 1. Today the legacies of recent wars linger on , but in a confused tangle .
- 2. What is the point of keeping a tangle of old mobile-phone chargers and a warped tennis racket ?
- 3. The network symbol signifies the swamp of psyche , the tangle of life , the mob needed for individuality .
- 4. By 1965 , african american marriage rates had declined precipitously , and daniel patrick moynihan was famously declaring black families a " tangle of pathology . "
- 5. The greek economy has underperformed growth and debt targets and is now enmeshed in a post-election tangle .