Was he ravelling out his life into golden threads that vanished and were forgotten?
It's as if my will had come untwisted and was ravelling out into separate strands.
It is not by ravelling that you will best appreciate its tissue or design.
Overcasting is a slanting stitch used to keep raw edges from ravelling.
Gently to and fro her tresses drifted on the water, or under the water went ever ravelling and unravelling.
Another, with lint bandages in her hand, begged her to come into a church hard by and assist in ravelling linen for the surgeons.
You hadn't any experience in ravelling such things out, and naturally it was too many for you.
A by-stander, who had very little faith in our hero, caught at the ravelling thus dropped.
There's no crying off for YOU no ravelling out, no clean leaves.
The housekeeper in selecting linen at the counter may test the linen by ravelling out some of the threads.
See raveling
pertaining to something that frays or ravels; also written ravelling
The raveling bottom of the jeans cannot be repaired.
1844
1580s, "to untangle, disentangle, unwind" (originally with out), also "to entangle, become tangled or confused," from Dutch ravelen "to tangle, fray," rafelen "to unweave," from rafel "frayed thread." The seemingly contradictory senses of this word (ravel and unravel are both synonyms and antonyms) are reconciled by its roots in weaving and sewing: as threads become unwoven, they get tangled.
1630s, "a tangle;" 1832, "a broken thread," from ravel (v.).
1630s, "a tangle;" 1832, "a broken thread," from ravel (v.).
