tangle

«tangle» in Mova's school dictionary: a twisted, messy knot of hair, string, wires or other… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a tangle, tangles); verb (tangle, tangles, tangled, tangling)

meaning for a pupil

1) A tangle is a twisted, messy knot of hair, string, wires or other long things. tree →

2) To tangle is to twist things together so they are hard to pull apart. tree →

3) A tangle is also a confused or difficult situation. tree →

4) To tangle with someone (informal) is to get into a fight or argument with them. tree →

5) A tangle can also be a thick, twisted mass of bushes or plants that is hard to get through. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life, hair gets tangles, and headphone wires and kite strings tangle. In safety lessons, fishing line and nets can tangle around animals and swimmers, so litter should be picked up. In stories, «tangled» forests and vines make places hard to pass. Phrases: «in a tangle», «tangled up», «get tangled».

examples

• My hair is full of tangles after swimming. tree →
• The kite string got tangled in the tree. tree →
• Brush out the tangles gently. tree →
• The headphone wires are in a tangle again. tree →
• A turtle got tangled in a fishing net. tree →
• The jungle was a tangle of vines. tree →
• Don't tangle with that big dog. tree →
• The story got into a tangle of lies. tree →
• On and on she went, bounding over rivers and crashing through tangles till she reached the sea. tree →

note

Countable: a tangle, tangles. Past form: tangled. Opposite: untangle, disentangle. Safety: throw away fishing line in a bin, because it tangles wildlife.

In the corpora

• Sawfish are critically endangered, mainly because their saws tangle in fishing nets.
• Not all spiders build round webs: some build funnels, sheets or tangles, and some build none at all.
• City pigeons often get string or hair tangled round their toes, which can cut into the foot; wildlife rescuers carefully remove it.
• When they bow, their curly wigs get tangled, and Alice has to run off to hide her laughter.
• Fishing line, hooks, released balloons and plastic drink rings can tangle animals or be eaten by them.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «tangle» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.