verb
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to catch or involve in or as if in a tangle; ensnare or enmesh
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to make tangled or twisted; snarl
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to make complicated; confuse
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to involve in difficulties; entrap
Related Words
See involve.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of entangle
Explanation
To entangle is to snarl, intertwine with, or get caught in. Too often, dolphins entangle themselves in large fishing nets meant to catch tuna or swordfish. If you mean to trip your brother, you can entangle your leg around his, and when long-haired people don't brush it for days, it will snarl and entangle itself. A figurative way to entangle is to get caught up in a complicated situation: "I didn't mean to entangle you in this mess with my roommates!" Entangle's roots are en-, "put in" or "cause to be" and tangle, or "snarl."
Vocabulary lists containing entangle
Messenger
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: en-, em-
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In “How to Entangle the Universe of a Spider/Web?” a laser scans repeatedly through an extended stretch of spider webs.
From New York Times • Feb. 20, 2022
In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw, Entangle justice in her net of law, And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong.
From An Essay on Man by Morley, Henry
Entangle, en-tang′gl, v.t. to twist into a tangle, or so as not to be easily separated: to involve in complications: to perplex: to ensnare.—n.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
In fine, thy Reason finer webs shall draw, Entangle Justice in her net of Law, And Right, too rigid, harden into Wrong; Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong.
From Voices for the Speechless by Firth, Abraham
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
