tangle

Etymology 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.

verb

1. (transitive) To mix together or intertwine.
2. (intransitive) To become mixed together or intertwined.
   Her hair was tangled from a day in the wind.
   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. 1960 March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 137
3. (intransitive, figurative) To enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.
   Don't tangle with someone three times your size.
   He tangled with the law.
   Compared to the last time they'd tangled with the U.S. Navy's carriers, the antiaircraft fire had been much, much more effective, even if the Wildcats hadn't done particularly well in their intercepts. They couldn't know it, of course, but the officer aboard Enterprise who'd recommended recarpeting the ship with 20-mm Oerlikons had, at least partially, been listened to, and the effect on the Japanese Navy's elite aircrews had been devastating. 3 February 2021, Drachinifel, 19:47 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 2022-12-04
   After a few attempts at counseling, they separated in January 2015. Since then, they have tangled in the courts. 2021-08-20, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Who Gets the L.L.C.? Inside a Silicon Valley Billionaire’s Divorce.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
4. (transitive) To catch and hold.
   When my simple weakness strays, / Tangled in forbidden ways. 1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple
   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. 2001, Christine A. Kelly, Tangled Up in Red, White, and Blue: New Social Movements in America
   He spent the night at a friend's place unable to sleep and wondering how he got himself tangled in this mess. 2004, Eve Ikuenobe-Otaigbe, Tangled, page 80
   Why else would she have tangled him in spells of illusion to get him to keep her company? 2014, Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory, The House of the Four Winds

noun

1. A tangled twisted mass.
2. A complicated or confused state or condition.
   I tried to sort through this tangle and got nowhere.
   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. 2013-08-03, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
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. (medicine) A paired helical fragment of tau protein found in a nerve cell and associated with Alzheimer's disease.
6. A form of art which consists of sections filled with repetitive patterns.

Etymology 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.

noun

1. Any large type of seaweed, especially a species of Laminaria.
   Than if with thee the roaring wells / Should gulf him fathom-deep in brine; / And hands so often clasped in mine, / Should toss with tangle and with shells. 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, section 10
   You've never smelled the tangle o' the Isles. 1917, “The Road to the Isles”, in Kenneth Macleod, editor, Songs of the Hebrides
2. (in the plural) An instrument consisting essentially of an iron bar to which are attached swabs, or bundles of frayed rope, or other similar substances, used to capture starfishes, sea urchins, and other similar creatures living at the bottom of the sea.
3. (Scotland) Any long hanging thing, even a lanky person.