Library / English Dictionary

ENTANGLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Twist together or entwine into a confusing mass

Example:

The child entangled the cord

Synonyms:

entangle; mat; snarl; tangle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "entangle" is one way to...):

distort; twine; twist (form into a spiral shape)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "entangle"):

felt (mat together and make felt-like)

enmesh; ensnarl; mesh (entangle or catch in (or as if in) a mesh)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They entangle their hair

Antonym:

disentangle (extricate from entanglement)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Entrap

Example:

Our people should not be mired in the past

Synonyms:

entangle; mire

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "entangle" is one way to...):

involve (engage as a participant)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

entanglement (an intricate trap that entangles or ensnares its victim)

Credits

 Context examples: 

When the time comes I will describe that wondrous moonlit night upon the great lake when a young ichthyosaurus—a strange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at, with bone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eye fixed upon the top of his head—was entangled in an Indian net, and nearly upset our canoe before we towed it ashore; the same night that a green water-snake shot out from the rushes and carried off in its coils the steersman of Challenger's canoe.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Fortunate that your affections were not farther entangled!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and is now desirous of getting those letters back.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)