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
-
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
Anthony Seward was 20 when his hand was crushed in an industrial mangle - an injury that required multiple surgeries, including having the hand sewn into his abdomen to help it heal.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 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
It wasn’t why she’d come, for one thing, but even if it was, it was unthinkable that she should mangle this dream.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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
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
But as coarse iron, sharpen'd, mangles more, And itch most hurts when anger'd to a sore; So when you plague a fool, 'tis still the curse, 120 You only make the matter worse and worse.
From The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 1 by George Gilfillan
Viktoria Haidai surveys the mangled remains of the printing press, which should have been busy churning out textbooks ready for the new school year.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
Pruned flowerbeds stand in front of gutted and mangled apartment blocks.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
Whether artificial intelligence created the mangled pages remains unanswered.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
The eerie ambient music that drives “Obsession” — so artfully serrated and delicately mangled by Burwell — emerged from a counterintuitive creative nuance that AI could never capture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Her hair has staged a full-scale rebellion and more of it has escaped her mangled braid than remains tucked inside.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
Circuit Court of Appeals especially had a field day mangling this area of the law.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2026
“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
Often ridiculed by parliamentary sketch writers for mangling the English language, to supporters he appeared an ordinary man facing the intellectual bullying by people with a better education.
From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2024
Her English is as rubbish as my French, but though we persist in thoroughly mangling both languages, we understand each other pretty well.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
