English Explanatory Dictionary

ravel

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To entwine or tangle (something) confusedly; to entangle.
  2. Often followed by up: to form (something) out of discrete elements, like weaving fabric from threads; to knit.
  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. To confuse or perplex (someone or something).
  5. Often followed by out: to undo the intricacies of (a problem, etc.); to clarify, to disentangle.
  6. To destroy or ruin (something), like unravelling fabric.
  7. In the APL programming language: to reshape (a variable) into a vector.
  8. 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.
  9. Often followed by out: of clothing, fabric, etc.: to become unwoven; to fray, to unravel.
  10. To become entangled or snarled.
noun
  1. A tangled mess; an entanglement, a snarl, a tangle.
  2. A confusing, intricate, or perplexing situation; a complication.
  3. A thread which has unravelled from fabric, etc.; also, a situation of fabric, etc., coming apart; an unravelling.
name
  1. A male given name.
  2. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈɹævəl/ [ˈɹævl̩] LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ravel.wav /ɹəˈvɛl/

Word forms

ravel ravels raveling ravelling raveled ravelled

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.

Synonyms

mat snarl enmesh ensnare ensnarl entangle foul implicate imply involve ravel tangle knit weave confound puzzle addle baffle lose embroil stick stump baffound bamboozle bedevil befuddle throw bemud bemuse bewilder bumfuzzle complicate confuddle confuse confuzzle dazzle discombobulate disconcert blind dumbfound ferhoodle flabagast flabbergast flabbergaster flurry fluster flummox fuddle jumble knot mix up muddle muddy perplex iron out unravel untangle absolve decipher get to the bottom of

Antonyms

disentangle unravel untangle feeze tease out unsnarl unweave

Related words

unravelable unravellable unraveled unravelled unraveler unraveller unraveling unravelling unravelment

Derived words

ravelable raveled ravelled raveler raveling ravelling raveller ravelly ravelment ravel out ravelproof unravel ravel bread Ravelian
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on R Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary