1610s, "a tangled condition, a snarl of threads," from tangle (v.).
tangle (v.)
mid-14c., nasalized variant of tagilen "to involve in a difficult situation, entangle," from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Swedish taggla "to disorder," Old Norse þongull "seaweed"), from Proto-Germanic *thangul- (cognates: Frisian tung, Dutch tang, German Tang "seaweed"); thus the original sense of the root evidently was "seaweed" as something that entangles (itself, or oars, or fishes, or nets). "The development of such a verb from a noun of limited use like tangle 1 is somewhat remarkable, and needs confirmation" [Century Dictionary]. In reference to material things, from c. 1500. Meaning "to fight with" is American English, first recorded 1928. Related: Tangled; tangling. Tanglefoot (1859) was Western American English slang for "strong whiskey."
双语例句
1. Better not tangle with the censors. They're very vindictive.
最好别和检查员发生冲突，他们可爱记仇了。
来自柯林斯例句
2. I was thinking what a tangle we had got ourselves into.
我在想，我们卷入了怎样的纷争之中。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Her hair tends to tangle.
她的头发容易打结。
来自柯林斯例句
4. a tangle of branches
盘绕（纠结）在一起的树枝
来自《权威词典》
5. We employed a lawyer to straighten our legal tangle.