different between untwine vs tangle

English

Etymology

un- +? twine

Verb

untwine (third-person singular simple present untwines, present participle untwining, simple past and past participle untwined)

1. (transitive) To untwist the strands of (something entwined).
   • 1902, Lina Beard and Adelia B. Beard, What a Girl Can Make and Do: New Ideas for Work and Play, New York: Scribner, Chapter 24, p. 284,^[1]

     The rope must be then untwined and the middle of each strand laid across the top and stitched down along the pencil line, half the length falling on one side, half on the other.

2. (transitive) To free (one thing that is entwined with another), disentangle, extricate.
   • 1860, William Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, London: William Blackwood, Volume 1, Lecture 5, p. 88,^[2]

     Woe to the revolutionist who is not himself a creature of the revolution! If he anticipate, he is lost; for it requires, what no individual can supply, a long and powerful counter-sympathy in a nation to untwine the ties of custom which bind a people to the established and the old.

   • 1864, George Macdonald, The Light Princess in The Light Princess and Other Stories, London: Chatto & Windus, 1891, p. 74,^[3]

     She then untwined the snake from her body, and held it by the tail high above her.

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, 1971, Chapter 26,^[4]

     She stood her ground until he reached her and flung both arms around her neck, dragging her to the floor. She later said the police had to untwine him before he could be taken to the ambulance.

3. (intransitive) To become untwisted or disentangled.
   • 1912, Morgan Scott, The Great Oakdale Mystery, New York: Hurst, Chapter 14, p. 155,^[5]

     As the tangled mass of men untwined, following the blast of the whistle, Sage heard Stone calling in his ear […]

   • 2004, Andrea Levy, Small Island, London: Review, Chapter Twenty-nine, p. 301,^[6]

     The zebra of their legs twined and untwined together on the bed.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tæ?.??l/
• Rhymes: -æ???l

Etymology 1

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

Verb

tangle (third-person singular simple present tangles, present participle tangling, simple past and past participle tangled)

1. (intransitive) to become mixed together or intertwined
2. (intransitive) to enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight

3. (transitive) to mix together or intertwine
4. (transitive) to catch and hold; to ensnare.
   • 1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple

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

Synonyms

• (to become mixed together or intertwined): dishevel, tousle
• (to enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight): argue, conflict, dispute, fight
• (to mix together or intertwine): entangle, knot, mat, snarl
• (to catch and hold): entrap

Antonyms

• (to mix together or intertwine): untangle, unsnarl

Derived terms

• betangle
• entangle

Translations

Noun

tangle (plural tangles)

1. A tangled twisted mass.
2. A complicated or confused state or condition.

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.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• tanglefish (Syngnathus acus)
• tanglesome

Translations

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

tangle (countable and uncountable, plural tangles)

2. Any large type of seaweed, especially a species of Laminaria.
   • 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, 10:

     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.

   • 1917, Kenneth Macleod (editor) "The Road to the Isles", in Songs of the Hebrides:

     You've never smelled the tangle o' the Isles.

3. (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.
4. (Scotland) Any long hanging thing, even a lanky person.

Hyponyms

• kombu

Further reading

• tangle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• tangle in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• tangle at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• gelant, langet, netlag