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tangle. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
tangle, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
tangle in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English tanglen, probably of North Germanic origin, compare Swedish taggla (“to disorder”), Old Norse þǫngull, þang (“tangle; seaweed”), see Etymology 2 below.
Verb
tangle (third-person singular simple present tangles, present participle tangling, simple past and past participle tangled)
- (transitive) To mix together or intertwine.
- Synonyms: entangle, knot, mat, snarl
- (intransitive) To become mixed together or intertwined.
- Synonyms: dishevel, tousle
- Antonyms: untangle, unsnarl
Her hair was tangled from a day in the wind.
1960 March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 137: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.
- (intransitive, figurative) To enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.
- Synonyms: argue, conflict, dispute, fight
Don't tangle with someone three times your size.
He tangled with the law.
2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 19:47 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 4 December 2022:Compared to the last time they'd tangled with the U.S. Navy's carriers, the antiaircraft fire had been much, much more effective, even if the Wildcats hadn't done particularly well in their intercepts. They couldn't know it, of course, but the officer aboard Enterprise who'd recommended recarpeting the ship with 20-mm Oerlikons had, at least partially, been listened to, and the effect on the Japanese Navy's elite aircrews had been devastating.
2021 August 20, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Who Gets the L.L.C.? Inside a Silicon Valley Billionaire’s Divorce.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:After a few attempts at counseling, they separated in January 2015. Since then, they have tangled in the courts.
- (transitive) To catch and hold.
- Synonyms: ensnare, entrap
1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple:When my simple weakness strays, / Tangled in 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 remain tangled in liberalism's web of pretentious institutions and betrayed promises is the reason for this battle from within.
2004, Eve Ikuenobe-Otaigbe, Tangled, →ISBN, page 80:He spent the night at a friend's place unable to sleep and wondering how he got himself tangled in this mess.
2014, Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory, The House of the Four Winds, →ISBN:Why else would she have tangled him in spells of illusion to get him to keep her company?
Derived terms
Translations
to mix together or intertwine
- Arabic:
- Moroccan Arabic: خبّل (ḵəbbəl)
- Bulgarian: обърквам (bg) (obǎrkvam), заплитам (bg) (zaplitam)
- Czech: zamotat pf, splést pf, zaplést pf
- Esperanto: konfuzi
- Finnish: sotkea (fi)
- French: emmêler (fr), enchevêtrer (fr) (thread, wire), compliquer (fr) (situation)
- Galician: enmarañar (gl), enlear (gl), ensarillar (gl), embeleñar (gl)
- German: verwirren (de), verfitzen (de) (coll.), verfilzen (de)
- Greek: πλέκω (el) (pléko)
- Ido: please add this translation if you can
- Italian: intrecciare (it)
- Khmer: ធ្វើឲ្យប្រទាក់ចំពាក់គ្នា (tvəə aoy prɑteak cɑmpeak knie)
- Macedonian: за́плете (záplete), за́плетка (zápletka)
- Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
- Portuguese: emaranhar (pt), misturar (pt)
- Russian: запу́тывать (ru) impf (zapútyvatʹ), запу́тать (ru) pf (zapútatʹ)
- Spanish: enmarañar (es)
- Swedish: trassla (sv) till, göra trasslig (sv)
- Walloon: ecomeler (wa), ecramyî (wa), emacraler (wa)
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to become mixed together or intertwined
- Arabic:
- Moroccan Arabic: تْخبّل (tḵəbbəl)
- Bikol Central: gubot
- Bulgarian: сплитам се (splitam se), заплитам се (zaplitam se)
- Finnish: sotkeutua (fi), sotkuuntua
- French: s’emmêler (fr), s’enchevêtrer (fr) (pronominal)
- German: verfitzen (de) (coll.), zerzausen (de)
- Greek: εμπλέκω (el) (empléko)
- Japanese: 縺れる (ja) (もつれる, motsureru)
- Khmer: ប្រទាក់ (km) (prɑteak), ចំពាក់ (km) (cɑmpeak)
- Macedonian: се пле́тка (se plétka), се пле́те (se pléte)
- Malay: kusut (ms)
- Mirandese: ambaraçar
- Polish: plątać się impf, splątać się pf, poplątać się pf
- Portuguese: enrolar-se, embaraçar (pt), emaranhar (pt)
- Russian: запу́тываться (ru) (zapútyvatʹsja), запу́таться (ru) pf (zapútatʹsja)
- Slovak: please add this translation if you can
- Slovene: please add this translation if you can
- Somali: please add this translation if you can
- Spanish: enmarañarse (es)
- Swedish: bli tilltrasslad (sv), trassla (sv) sig
- Ukrainian: заплутуватися impf (zaplutuvatysja)
- Walloon: s' ecramyî (wa), s' ecomeler (wa)
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to be forced into some kind of situation
to enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight
Translations to be checked
Noun
tangle (plural tangles)
- A tangled twisted mass.
- A complicated or confused state or condition.
I tried to sort through this tangle and got nowhere.
2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847: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.
- An argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.
- (mathematics) A region of the projection of a knot such that the knot crosses its perimeter exactly four times.
- (medicine) A paired helical fragment of tau protein found in a nerve cell and associated with Alzheimer's disease.
- A form of art which consists of sections filled with repetitive patterns.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
tangled twisted mass
- Bulgarian: нещо объркано (nešto obǎrkano)
- Czech: změť f, spleť f
- Dutch: wirwar (nl) m
- Finnish: sotku (fi), vyyhti (fi)
- French: imbroglio (fr) m
- German: Wirrwarr (de) m or n, Durcheinander (de) n, Gewirr (de) n, wirres Knäuel n
- Hungarian: gubanc (hu)
- Japanese: 縺れ (ja) (もつれ, motsure)
- Macedonian: брко́тија f (brkótija), брко́тница f (brkótnica), ка́ша f (káša)
- Maori: pōkīkī
- Polish: plątanina (pl) f
- Portuguese: emaranhado (pt) m
- Russian: пу́таница (ru) f (pútanica), неразбери́ха (ru) f (nerazberíxa), беспоря́док (ru) m (besporjádok)
- Spanish: maraña (es) f
- Swedish: bråte (sv) c, härva (sv) c, röra (sv) c, oreda (sv) c, trassel (sv) n, virrvarr (sv) n
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complicated or confused state or condition
argument, conflict, dispute, or fight
Etymology 2
Of North Germanic origin, such as Danish tang or Swedish tång, from Old Norse þongull, þang. See also Norwegian tongul, Faroese tongul, Icelandic þöngull.
Noun
tangle (countable and uncountable, plural tangles)
- Any large type of seaweed, especially a species of Laminaria.
1917, “The Road to the Isles”, in Kenneth Macleod, editor, Songs of the Hebrides:You've never smelled the tangle o' the Isles.
- (in the plural) 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.
- (Scotland) Any long hanging thing, even a lanky person.
Hyponyms
Further reading
- “tangle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “tangle”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “tangle”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams