ravel

Etymology

The verb is borrowed from Dutch ravelen, rafelen (“to tangle, become entangled; to fray; to unweave”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain. It has been suggested that the verb is originally derived from the noun, but the Oxford English Dictionary regards this as “very uncertain”, and instead regards the noun as having derived from the verb (compare Dutch rafel, raffel (“frayed thread”)). Ravel is a contranym having both the senses of tangling (verb senses 1.1, 1.2, 1.4.1, and 2.3; noun sense 1) and untangling (verb senses 1.3, 1.4.2, 1.4.3, 2.1, and 2.2; noun sense 2). It would appear that the tangling senses predate the untangling ones (as in Dutch), but this is uncertain because the first published uses of both senses of the words occur around the same time.

verb

1. (transitive)
   1. To entwine or tangle (something) confusedly; to entangle.
   2. (also figurative) Often followed by up: to form (something) out of discrete elements, like weaving fabric from threads; to knit.
      [Magazine staffer about his political team:] Pencils at the ready, keen brains agleam behind intelligent horn rims, these experts spread out to ravel the loose ends of White-Housing, web-spinning spiders for [the presidential candidate]. May 28 1960, Walt Kelly, Pogo, comic strip, page 149
   3. To unwind (a reel of thread, a skein of yarn, etc.); to pull apart (cloth, a seam, etc.); to fray, to unpick, to unravel; also, to pull out (a string of yarn, a thread, etc.) from a piece of fabric, or a skein or reel.
   4. (figurative)
      1. To confuse or perplex (someone or something).
      2. (archaic) Often followed by out: to undo the intricacies of (a problem, etc.); to clarify, to disentangle.
      3. (obsolete) To destroy or ruin (something), like unravelling fabric.
   5. (programming) In the APL programming language: to reshape (a variable) into a vector.
2. (intransitive)
   1. Often followed by out: of a reel of thread or skein of yarn; or a thread on a reel or a string of yarn in a skein, etc.: to become untwisted or unwound.
   2. (also figurative) Often followed by out: of clothing, fabric, etc.: to become unwoven; to fray, to unravel.
      But the real work of the First Thursday Foundation is remembering, and its biggest gift is knitting back together lives raveled by loss. 10 September 2011, Martha T. Moore, “After 9/11, dinner gang raises funds to honor those lost”, in USA Today, McLean, Va.: Gannett Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2012-01-07
   3. (archaic or obsolete) To become entangled or snarled.

noun

1. (chiefly literary or Scotland)
   1. A tangled mess; an entanglement, a snarl, a tangle.
   2. (figurative) A confusing, intricate, or perplexing situation; a complication.
2. (also figurative) A thread which has unravelled from fabric, etc.; also, a situation of fabric, etc., coming apart; an unravelling.