ENTANGLE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Entangle

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/ɛntˈæŋgəl/ Listen

verb

Entangle v. t. (past & past part. entangled; pres. part. entangling)

To twist or interweave in such a manner as not to be easily separated; to make tangled, confused, and intricate; as, to entangle yarn or the hair.

To involve in such complications as to render extrication a bewildering difficulty; hence, metaphorically, to insnare; to perplex; to bewilder; to puzzle; as, to entangle the feet in a net, or in briers. "Entangling alliances." "The difficulties that perplex men's thoughts and entangle their understandings." "Allowing her to entangle herself with a person whose future was so uncertain."

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Etymology of 'Entangle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Entangle" Quotes from Famous Books

... began to interfere, Maria and Charles Edward and Alice and even Billy, each one with an independent plan, either to lure the Goward back or to eliminate him. Alice had the most original idea, which was to marry Peggy to Dr. Denbigh; but this clashed with Maria's idea, which was to entangle the doctor with Aunt Elizabeth in order that the Goward might be recaptured. It was all extremely complicated and unnecessary (from my point of view), and of course it transpired and circulated through the gossip of the town, and poor Peggy was much afflicted ...

— The Whole Family - A Novel by Twelve Authors • William Dean Howells, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mary Stewart Cutting, Elizabeth Jo

... I entangle in the web a rare morsel, a Dragon-fly, who struggles desperately and sets the whole net a-shaking. The other, up above, leaves her lurking-place amid the cypress-foliage, strides swiftly down along her telegraph-wire, comes to the Dragon-fly, trusses her and ...

— The Life of the Spider • J. Henri Fabre

... however, from saying or doing anything that would entangle him in the meshes of the law; but in order to preserve this outward tranquility, he was obliged to ease his mind in some way, which he did by actually glowering at the innocent officer as though he would "wither him with ...

— Ralph Gurney's Oil Speculation • James Otis

... has it." This was the expression used by the spectators at the moment when a Gladiator was wounded by his antagonist. In the previous line, in the words "captus est," a figurative allusion is made to the "retiarius," a Gladiator who was provided with a net, with which he endeavored to entangle his opponent.] ...

— The Comedies of Terence - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Notes • Publius Terentius Afer, (AKA) Terence

... reverted to the terms of the bargain, the entire enterprise, the figures on his check. His own amazing imbecility appalled him. What idiocy! What sudden madness had seized him to entangle himself in such unheard-of negotiations! True, he had played bridge until dawn the night before, but, on awaking, he had discovered no perceptible hold-over. It must have been sheer weakness of intellect that permitted ...

— The Tracer of Lost Persons • Robert W. Chambers

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