tangleとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From Middle English tanglen, probably of North Germanic origin, compare Swedish taggla (“to disorder”), Old Norse þǫngull, þang (“tangle; seaweed”), see Etymology 2 below.

動詞

tangle (三人称単数 現在形 tangles, 現在分詞 tangling, 過去形および過去分詞形 tangled)

1. (transitive) To mix together or intertwine.

   Synonyms: entangle, knot, mat, snarl

2. (intransitive) To become mixed together or intertwined.

   Synonyms: dishevel, tousle

   Antonyms: untangle, unsnarl

   Her hair was tangled from a day in the wind.

   • 1960 March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 137:

     By the afternoon it seemed as if the storm had passed and that frost was setting in; but in the evening the wind rose to gale force, bringing telegraph poles down like skittles and tangling power and telephone lines.

3. (intransitive, figuratively) To enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.

   Synonyms: argue, conflict, dispute, fight

   Don't tangle with someone three times your size.

   He tangled with the law.

   • 2021 August 20, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Who Gets the L.L.C.? Inside a Silicon Valley Billionaire’s Divorce.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], ISSN 0362-4331:

     After a few attempts at counseling, they separated in January 2015. Since then, they have tangled in the courts.

4. (transitive) To catch and hold.

   Synonyms: ensnare, entrap

   • 1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398:

     tangled in amorous nets

   • 1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple

     When my simple weakness strays, / Tangled in forbidden ways.

   • 2001, Christine A. Kelly, Tangled Up in Red, White, and Blue: New Social Movements in America, →ISBN:

     This is a book about the potential for the reclamation, reform, and enlightened transformation of the most expansive elements of the liberal tradition— that social and economic justice remain tangled in liberalism's web of pretentious institutions and betrayed promises is the reason for this battle from within.

   • 2004, Eve Ikuenobe-Otaigbe, Tangled, →ISBN, page 80:

     He spent the night at a friend's place unable to sleep and wondering how he got himself tangled in this mess.

   • 2014, Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory, The House of the Four Winds, →ISBN:

     Why else would she have tangled him in spells of illusion to get him to keep her company?

派生語

• betangle
• entangle

名詞

tangle (複数形 tangles)

1. A tangled twisted mass.
2. A complicated or confused state or condition.
   • 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.

   I tried to sort through this tangle and got nowhere.

3. An argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.
4. (mathematics) A region of the projection of a knot such that the knot crosses its perimeter exactly four times.
5. A form of art which consists of sections filled with repetitive patterns.

同意語

• (tangled twisted mass): knot, mess, snarl
• (complicated または confused state または condition): maze, snarl
• (argument, conflict, dispute, または fight): argument, conflict, dispute, fight

派生語

• tanglefish (Syngnathus acus)
• tanglesome

語源 2

Of North Germanic origin, such as Danish tang or Swedish tång, from Old Norse þongull, þang. See also Norwegian tongul, Faroese tongul, Icelandic þöngull.