mangle
1 Americannoun
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mangles
plural
verb (used with object)
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to smooth or press with a mangle.
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Metalworking. to squeeze (metal plates) between rollers.
verb
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to mutilate, disfigure, or destroy by cutting, crushing, or tearing
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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
But whether she uses the term “African American woman” or “Black woman,” machine distortions that mangle facial features and hair textures occur at high rates.
From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2023
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
Ms Bowler said the ring had had "a charmed life" and had been damaged going through a mangle, but it was not expensive jewellery that caught her mother's eye.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2021
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
Where, literally, would Angelenos be without the flying eyes that guide us to our destinations through our traffic mangles and bring us close to mayhem, riot and fire?
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
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
What an ill-conditioned cur he is, and how he mouths and mangles the roses that bestrew his pathway, always bent upon finding the worm at the core!
From Birds of Prey by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
For years afterward, Angelenos collected firewood from the mangled forest of broken tree branches the waters left behind.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
The documentary powerfully captures the apocalyptic landscape of Gaza City, its streets reduced to rubble and mangled rebar, and the weighty sense of responsibility shouldered by the few remaining journalists on the ground.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
Whether artificial intelligence created the mangled pages remains unanswered.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
The team broke through concrete and mangled reinforcing rods to reach him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
The glebe was littered with mangled fuselages and blackened wings.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
“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
Thus the name they chose, “kuklux,” a slight mangling of kuklos, the Greek word for “circle.”
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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.
