mangle
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
to smooth or press with a mangle.
-
Metalworking. to squeeze (metal plates) between rollers.
verb
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to mutilate, disfigure, or destroy by cutting, crushing, or tearing
-
to ruin, spoil, or mar
noun
verb
Synonym Usage
See maim.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mangle1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French mangler, perhaps dissimilated variant of Old French mangonner “to mangle”; akin to mangonel
Origin of mangle2
1765–75; < Dutch mangel ≪ Late Latin manganum. See mangonel
Explanation
When you mangle something, you completely destroy it, by ripping, cutting, crushing, or otherwise mauling it into pieces. You shouldn't leave your new puppy alone in a room with your favorite shoes because he might mangle them with his sharp puppy teeth. A bad accident will mangle your bicycle, bending it beyond repair, and a paper shredder mangles a document by slicing it up. You can also use the word mangle to describe what happens when your uncle's terrible bluegrass band performs a cover of your favorite classic rock song — they mangle it.
Vocabulary lists containing mangle
Ghost
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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"Marigolds"
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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:
If “to toss and mangle these poor human bodies was the . . . law of Nature,” Thoreau asks us, “why waste any time in awe or pity?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
To slightly mangle Bruce Springsteen's "Born To Run": the market's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance Powell drive; everybody's out on the run tonight, and there's no place left to hide.
From Reuters ● Mar. 7, 2023
Giant pumps that send water south through aqueducts mangle the critters or draw them into the grasp of lurking predators.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2023
Then I mangle a “merci” and step between the tables, each crowded with young tech workers speaking in euphonic blends of French and English, to a stool by the window overlooking the crowded street.
From New York Times ● Jun. 23, 2022
The tablecloth came out the other end of the mangle, and I dropped it into a hickory basket.
From "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson
From there, activists could demand almost whatever they want: action on climate change, an end to mass surveillance and ICE raids, or an equitable health system that heals instead of mangles.
From Salon ● Dec. 11, 2025
If he mangles the facts or ignores them altogether, which he does often, Seales said there are other news sites and sources where viewers can fact-check him.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2024
Mr. Biden sometimes mangles his words and looks older than he used to because of his stiff gait and thinning voice.
From New York Times ● Jun. 4, 2023
The radiation inflicts photochemical damage that mangles nucleic acids—inactivating pathogenic viruses and bacteria, although not necessarily killing them.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 22, 2022
On alternate days she mangles clothes, and in the afternoons she sews.
From Home Life in Germany by Sidgwick, Alfred, Mrs.
Such gaps are not abstract — they represent real human lives that are lost or mangled.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2026
On the night of Jan. 29, Tim was in a hotel room in New Jersey between flights when he turned on the TV and saw mangled aircraft sinking into the Potomac.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 14, 2026
On Thursday, mangled metal screeched as an excavator compacted the skeletons of former homes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
Others showed a mangled wreckage of a black sports utility vehicle.
From Barron's ● Dec. 30, 2025
Most of the clothes had been mangled on Midsummer Eve, but they found a few unshredded items for Grandma to wear in case they succeeded in transforming her.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
“Steve ‘Manouychin’ really gave me a ‘beauty’ when he pushed this loser,” Trump posted on social media External link in August, apparently deliberately mangling Mnuchin’s name.
From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025
In 1812, a year of dramatic battles in North America, Europe and Russia, some Russians founded a Sonoma County outpost called Fort Ross, probably an Anglicized mangling of the word “Russ,” for Russia.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2025
Despite a later reputation for mangling his words, Prescott's performance in the conference hall was an impassioned tour de force.
From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2024
The flood unleashed enormous destruction, flipping and mangling cars and leaving Derna's streets covered in rubble, mud and debris.
From Reuters ● Sep. 13, 2023
After mangling the Hab, I pulled the remaining canvas down to the flooring and resealed it.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
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.
