tangle

Plural: tangles

Noun

• a twisted and tangled mass that is highly interwoven
  • "they carved their way through the tangle of vines"
• something jumbled or confused
  • "a tangle of government regulations"
• A tangled twisted mass.
• A complicated or confused state or condition.
• An argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.
• A region of the projection of a knot such that the knot crosses its perimeter exactly four times.
• 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.
• Any large type of seaweed, especially a species of Laminaria.
• 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.
• Any long hanging thing, even a lanky person.

Verb

Verb Forms: tangled, tangling, tangles

• To twist or intertwine into a confused mass.
• 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
  • "The child entangled the cord"
• To mix together or intertwine.
• To become mixed together or intertwined.
• To enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.
• To catch and hold.

Examples

• Don't tangle with someone three times your size.
• He tangled with the law.
• Her hair was tangled from a day in the wind.
• I tried to sort through this tangle and got nowhere.
• The letters seemed to "TANGLE" themselves on his rack, making it hard to find a good play.

Synonyms

dishevel, drag, drag in, embroil, entangle, knot, mat, maze, ravel, snarl, sweep, sweep up, tousle, argue, argument, conflict, dispute, ensnare, entrap, fight, mess

Antonyms

disentangle, unknot, unravel, unsnarl, untangle

Anagrams of tangle