enmesh
Americanverb (used with object)
-
enmeshes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
enmeshed,
past participle, past
-
enmeshing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
enmeshsimple
-
enmeshessimple
-
have enmeshedperfect
-
has enmeshedperfect
-
am enmeshingprogressive
-
are enmeshingprogressive
-
is enmeshingprogressive
-
have been enmeshingperfect progressive
-
has been enmeshingperfect progressive
Past
-
enmeshedsimple
-
had enmeshedperfect
-
was enmeshingprogressive
-
were enmeshingprogressive
-
had been enmeshingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of enmesh
Explanation
To enmesh is to tangle or trap, the way a sea turtle might enmesh itself in a huge fishing net, or you might find yourself enmeshed in a long conversation with your talkative neighbor. You'll most often find the verb enmesh hidden within the phrase "be enmeshed in." Your kitten may get enmeshed in the snarl of yarn she's playing with — or your sister may become enmeshed in the fight between her two best friends. However you use this word, you'll find it equally appropriate for literal or figurative entanglements: "Don't enmesh me in your money making schemes!"
Vocabulary lists containing enmesh
Othello
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The Weight of Our Sky
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"Cinderella, the Legend"
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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.
See Examples For:
In some of the book’s finest moments, Sheff explores her creative emergence, particularly her brash efforts to enmesh herself with Fluxus, the international art movement that celebrated the act of performance for performance’s sake.
From Salon ● Mar. 28, 2025
Not all bills before the committee Monday sought to enmesh religion with education.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2024
Like Bernstein, he has achieved genuine civic stature — and like Bernstein, enough of one to occasionally enmesh him in controversy.
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2023
Emotionally, I am very reluctant to further enmesh our lives with MIL’s.
From Slate ● Apr. 26, 2022
Leou was a revengeful demon, ever at enmity with one or another of the gods and striving how he might enmesh his feet in destruction.
From Kai Lung's Golden Hours by Ernest Bramah
Writing to our senses as well as the characters enmeshes the viewers in Jimmy’s world, but Odenkirk’s pathos-soaked scoundrel makes the show breathe and kick.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2017
But what happens when it becomes harder and harder to tell the two apart -- where every attempt at definition just enmeshes us further?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2016
The Red Mass has generated criticism over the decades, in part for the extent to which it enmeshes the high court with church affairs, and some members of the Supreme Court also have their qualms.
From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2015
These contrasting paint textures give the works a firm foothold in reality and reward up-close viewing, which enmeshes the eye in both their spatial paradoxes and everyday moods.
From New York Times ● Oct. 4, 2012
Our coldest midwinter nights are still and the tangle of the trees enmeshes a protecting warmth that the outside cold cannot penetrate altogether.
From Old Plymouth Trails by Winthrop Packard
“Maybe the answer was enmeshed in the question,” she tells readers in “The Butterfly Season,” a roving account of her adventure, first published in Denmark last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Heder didn’t want to disrupt the schooling of her two young children, ages 10 and 12, and has become too enmeshed in the area to want to leave it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
These two countries are longtime military and strategic allies, with deeply enmeshed economies and several thousand miles of minimally guarded border.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
When Joe Biden was president, the relationship was very enmeshed, right?
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
Could she have become so enmeshed in the competition that she’d lost track of time?
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
There come suggestions of shutting the world out, enmeshing the listener in the plush luxury of Rachmaninoff-like harmonies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2022
Your partner's actions push that one-to-one through a third person, erasing boundaries and enmeshing you all.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 12, 2021
For the actors, encountering and enmeshing with the community was an eye-opening experience.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 30, 2021
An inchoate show about an inchoate time makes a kind of sense, an enmeshing of content and form.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2021
A sense of delicious well-being possessed her, enmeshing thought in hazy lethargy, quieting pulse and mind.
From The Firing Line by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
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.
