embroil
Plural: embroils
Verb
Verb Forms: embroiled, embroiling, embroils
- To involve in argument, conflict, or difficult circumstances.
- force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action
- To bring (something) into a state of confusion or uproar; to complicate, to confuse, to jumble.
- To cause (someone) to be drawn into or involved in a difficult situation or state of contention.
- To set (something) on fire; to burn (something).
Noun
- A state of confusion or uproar; a commotion, a disturbance; also, a quarrel.
- A state of anxiety or disturbance of the mind.
Examples
- Avoid him. He will embroil you in his fights.
- His strategic blocking play threatened to embroil the entire board in a deadlock.
Origin / Etymology
PIE word
*h₁én
The verb is borrowed from French embrouiller (“to entangle”), from em- (a variant of en- (prefix meaning ‘in; into’)) + brouiller (“to confuse, mix up”) (ultimately from Vulgar Latin *brodiculāre, from *brodicāre, from Late Latin brodium (“broth, stew; mixture”), from Frankish *broþ (“broth”), from Proto-Germanic *bruþą (“stock, broth”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”)).
The noun is derived from the verb.
Cognates
* Italian imbrogliare
* Spanish embrollar
Scrabble Score: 11
embroil: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordembroil: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
embroil: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary