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ravel

verb
/ˈɹævəl/US/ɹəˈvɛl/

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.

  1. derived from ravelen

Definitions

  1. To entwine or tangle (something) confusedly

    To entwine or tangle (something) confusedly; to entangle.

    • When paſſive Thouſands ſtretch beneath his Sword, / And freely die at his Imperial Word, / Thoſe wild, unhappy, ſelf-defending Few, / If not deſtroy'd in Time, will ravel all the Clew; […]
    • What trade would not be the worse of him? […] [M]ake a clerk of him, and he would only ravel the figures; send him to the soldiering, and he would have a sudden impulse to fight on the wrong side.

  2. Often followed by up

    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].

  3. To unwind (a reel of thread, a skein of yarn, etc.)

    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.

    • [Y]ou ſhall haue one vvoman knit more in a hovver then any man can Rauell agen in ſeauen and tvventy yeare.
    • If there be any fault in the verses, I can mend it extempore; for a stitch in a man's stocking not taken up in time, ravels out all the rest.
  4. ›+ 10 more definitions

    1. To confuse or perplex (someone or something).

    2. Often followed by out

      Often followed by out: to undo the intricacies of (a problem, etc.); to clarify, to disentangle.

      • Make you to rouell^([sic]) all this matter out / That I eſſentially am not in madneſſe, / But mad in craft, […]

    3. To destroy or ruin (something), like unravelling fabric.

      • [S]helter, ſhelter, if you be ſeene / All's ravell'd out agen: ſtand there private, / And you'le find the very opportunity / To call you forth, and place you at the Table.

    4. In the APL programming language

      In the APL programming language: to reshape (a variable) into a vector.

    5. To become entangled or snarled.

      • [A]s you vnwinde her loue from him; / Least it ſhould rauell, and be good to none, / You muſt prouide to bottome it on me: / Which muſt be done, by praiſing me as much / As you, in worth diſpraiſe, ſir Valentine.

    6. A tangled mess

      A tangled mess; an entanglement, a snarl, a tangle.

      • Mr. Urquhart was in sic a ravel after it that when he gies out the first line o' the hunder and nineteenth psalm for singing, says he, 'And so on to the end.'
      • There was a lovely ravel of sunflowers in the garden. She looked out the window. "There are my sunflowers!" she said.
      • The savannah valley is shadeless, spotted only with the thorny ravel of mesquite bushes.

    7. A confusing, intricate, or perplexing situation

      A confusing, intricate, or perplexing situation; a complication.

    8. A thread which has unravelled from fabric, etc.

      A thread which has unravelled from fabric, etc.; also, a situation of fabric, etc., coming apart; an unravelling.

    9. A male given name.

    10. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

ravelable, raveled, ravelled, raveler, raveling, ravelling, raveller, ravelly, ravelment, ravel out, ravelproof, unravel, ravel bread, Ravelian

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for ravel. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA