Was he ravelling out his life into golden threads that vanished and were forgotten?
It is not by ravelling that you will best appreciate its tissue or design.
There's no crying off for YOU no ravelling out, no clean leaves.
I was afraid to use violence for fear of breaking it, or ravelling it through.
She would pick every shred, ravelling, or speck from one's clothing.
It's as if my will had come untwisted and was ravelling out into separate strands.
You hadn't any experience in ravelling such things out, and naturally it was too many for you.
Overcasting is a slanting stitch used to keep raw edges from ravelling.
Another, with lint bandages in her hand, begged her to come into a church hard by and assist in ravelling linen for the surgeons.
Gently to and fro her tresses drifted on the water, or under the water went ever ravelling and unravelling.
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.).