| Library / English Dictionary |
TANGLED
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In a confused mass
Example:
the tangled ropes
Classified under:
Similar:
afoul; foul; fouled (especially of a ship's lines etc)
enmeshed; intermeshed (caught as if in a mesh)
entangled (twisted together in a tangled mass)
knotty; snarled; snarly (tangled in knots or snarls)
matted (tangled in a dense mass)
rootbound (having the roots matted or densely tangled)
thrown; thrown and twisted (twisted together; as of filaments spun into a thread)
Antonym:
untangled (not tangled)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious
Example:
tortuous negotiations lasting for months
Synonyms:
Byzantine; convoluted; involved; knotty; tangled; tortuous
Classified under:
Similar:
complex (complicated in structure; consisting of interconnected parts)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb tangle
Context examples:
A second theory is that the magnetic field lines within the gas flowing towards Sgr A* could be tightly packed and become tangled.
(NASA’s Chandra Detects Record-Breaking Outburst from Milky Way’s Black Hole, NASA)
Constant convection, or boiling, of material throughout the sun generates islands of tangled magnetic fields.
(Scientists Uncover Origins of the Sun’s Swirling Spicules, NASA)
Now he suddenly turned himself sideways, and all I could see of him was tangled hair with a red, protruding ear.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I felt quite wicked in my dirt and dust, with my tangled hair.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Once, during a brief halt, when he got tangled in the traces and delayed the start, both Dave and Sol-leks flew at him and administered a sound trouncing.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Old Ebbits now and again pulled his tangled wits together, and hints and sparkles of intelligence came and went in his eyes.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
This can be seen in the tangled features above and below the plane, where the local magnetic field is particularly disorganized.
(Planck Takes Magnetic Fingerprint of Our Galaxy, JPL/NASA)
Beneath them on every side stretched the long sweep of peaceful country, rolling plain, and tangled wood, all softened and mellowed in the silver moonshine.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Abnormal, tangled collections of dilated blood vessels that result from congenitally malformed vascular structures in which arterial afferents flow directly into venous efferents without the usual resistance of an intervening capillary bed.
(Arteriovenous Malformation, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
With the coming of night in the mid-afternoon, the cries sounded closer as the pursuers drew in according to their custom; and the dogs grew excited and frightened, and were guilty of panics that tangled the traces and further depressed the two men.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
