tangle
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to bring together into a mass of confusedly interlaced or intertwisted threads, strands, or other like parts; snarl.
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to involve in something that hampers, obstructs, or overgrows.
The bushes were tangled with vines.
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to catch and hold in or as if in a net or snare.
verb (used without object)
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to be or become tangled.
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Informal. to come into conflict; fight or argue.
I don't want to tangle with him over the new ruling.
noun
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a tangled condition or situation.
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a tangled or confused mass or assemblage of something.
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a confused jumble.
a tangle of contradictory statements.
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Informal. a conflict; disagreement.
He got into a tangle with the governor.
noun
noun
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a confused or complicated mass of hairs, lines, fibres, etc, knotted or coiled together
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a complicated problem, condition, or situation
verb
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to become or cause to become twisted together in a confused mass
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to come into conflict; contend
to tangle with the police
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(tr) to involve in matters which hinder or confuse
to tangle someone in a shady deal
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(tr) to ensnare or trap, as in a net
noun
Other Word Forms
- tanglement noun
- tangler noun
- tangly adverb
Etymology
Origin of tangle1
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English tangilen, tagilen “to entangle,” probably from a Scandinavian language; compare Swedish (dialect) taggla “to disarrange”
Origin of tangle2
First recorded in 1530–40; from a Scandinavian language; compare Old Norse thǫngull “strand of tangle,” Norwegian tang
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Here, the grapes that tangled themselves around corner-bar trellises all summer fall frozen to the sidewalk, shattering softly underfoot.
From Salon
Newspapers, in both the North and the South, struggled to explain the tangled politics to the public.
From Literature
If I wanted to watch a pair of agitated fortysomethings engage in a comically meaningless tangle, I would hit the parking lot at a travel soccer tournament.
“She’s ensnared in a tangle of weeds. They’re caught within her fur, and she cannot escape, Handsome!”
From Literature
It had something to do with the muscles, leaders, and things like that, being all tangled up.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
