tangle
verb/ˈtæŋɡl/
/ˈtæŋɡl/
[transitive, intransitive]Verb Forms
Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they tangle | /ˈtæŋɡl/ /ˈtæŋɡl/ |
| he / she / it tangles | /ˈtæŋɡlz/ /ˈtæŋɡlz/ |
| past simple tangled | /ˈtæŋɡld/ /ˈtæŋɡld/ |
| past participle tangled | /ˈtæŋɡld/ /ˈtæŋɡld/ |
| -ing form tangling | /ˈtæŋɡlɪŋ/ /ˈtæŋɡlɪŋ/ |
- tangle (something) up to twist something into an untidy mass; to become twisted in this way
- She had tangled up the sheets on the bed as she lay tossing and turning.
Word OriginMiddle English (in the sense ‘entangle, catch in a tangle’): probably of Scandinavian origin and related to Swedish dialect taggla ‘disarrange’.Definitions on the go
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tangle