Tangle \Tan"gle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tangled; p. pr. & vb. n.
Tangling.] [A frequentative fr. tang seaweed; hence, to
twist like seaweed. See Tang seaweed, and cf. Tangle, n.]
1. To unite or knit together confusedly; to interweave or
interlock, as threads, so as to make it difficult to
unravel the knot; to entangle; to ravel.
[1913 Webster]
2. To involve; to insnare; to entrap; as, to be tangled in
lies. "Tangled in amorous nets." --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
When my simple weakness strays,
Tangled in forbidden ways. --Crashaw.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
tangled
adj 1: in a confused mass; "pushed back her tangled hair"; "the
tangled ropes" [ant: untangled]
2: highly involved or intricate; "the Byzantine tax structure";
"convoluted legal language"; "convoluted reasoning";
"intricate needlework"; "an intricate labyrinth of refined
phraseology"; "the plot was too involved"; "a knotty
problem"; "got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering"; "Oh,
what a tangled web we weave"- Sir Walter Scott; "tortuous
legal procedures"; "tortuous negotiations lasting for
months" [syn: Byzantine, convoluted, intricate, involved,
knotty, labyrinthine, tortuous]
WordNet (r) 2.0
38 Moby Thesaurus words for "tangled":
Byzantine, balled up, complex, complicated, confounded, confused,
convoluted, crabbed, daedal, devious, elaborate, embrangled,
entangled, fouled up, implicated, intricate, involuted, involved,
knotted, labyrinthian, labyrinthine, loused up, many-faceted,
matted, mazy, meandering, messed up, mixed up, mucked up,
multifarious, perplexed, ramified, roundabout, screwed up, snarled,
subtle, tangly, twisted
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
|
|
|