untangle

verb un·tan·gle \ ˌən-ˈtaŋ-gəl \

Updated on: 9 Dec 2017

Definition of untangle

transitive verb

: to loose from tangles or entanglement : straighten out

untangle a knot

untangle a mystery

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Examples of untangle in a Sentence

She carefully untangled the child's hair.
He untangled the garden hose.

Recent Examples of untangle from the Web

The Boring Company hopes to dig tunnels faster, to help untangle messes like the 405.

— david z. morris, Fortune, "Elon Musk Posted New Pictures of The Tunnel That Could Save L.A. From Traffic Hell," 29 Oct. 2017
Ski Mask’s verse was hard to untangle, while Denzel Curry stunned the masses with his classic rapid-fire verse.

— tony centeno, Billboard, "The Best Cyphers From the 2017 BET Hip-Hop Awards Ranked," 11 Oct. 2017
There was clearly a short in the passing wires through the opening weeks of the season, and Lazor has to untangle them for his quarterback and pass catchers.

— jim owczarski, Cincinnati.com, "Bill Lazor's mission: Solve Bengals' identity crisis," 20 Sep. 2017
The show makes no effort to untangle these knots, but instead dumps it in our laps as if to say: Look, love is annoying.

— chloé cooper jones, GQ, "Better Things’ Pamela Adlon Is Making Fun of You Because She Loves You," 14 Sep. 2017
An initial agreement, in 2015, fell apart after about six months amid concerns about the size of integration costs and complexity of untangling Schneider’s business.

— tara patel, Bloomberg.com, "Schneider Eyes Market Leadership in Third Crack at Aveva Deal," 5 Sep. 2017
When the two untangled after the sack, Francois stayed on the ground, holding his left knee.

— andy staples, SI.com, "Florida State Braces for Update on Deondre Francois, Who It Can Hardly Afford to Lose," 3 Sep. 2017
Like most things Bitcoin, understanding the impending fork requires untangling a wild scrum of arcane tech and complex political wrangling.

— david z. morris, Fortune, "Bitcoin’s Big Compromise Is Unravelling, as a Contentious Upgrade Threatens to Split the Network," 14 Oct. 2017
Removing the Chargers from this equation would create a mess that’s hard to untangle for the Rams, the NFL and others.

— brent schrotenboer, USA TODAY, "No matter how bad it gets, 8 reasons the Chargers will never leave Los Angeles," 12 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'untangle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of untangle

1550

untangle Synonyms

Synonyms

disentangle, ravel (out), unbraid, unlay, unsnarl, unravel, untwine, untwist, unweave

Antonyms

entangle, snarl, tangle

Related Words

fray, fret; smooth, straighten (out); uncoil, undo, unknot, unlace, unroll, unstring, unthread, untie, unwind

Near Antonyms

braid, knot, lace, plait, ply, splice, tie, wind

Synonym Discussion of untangle

extricate, disentangle, untangle, disencumber, disembarrass mean to free from what binds or holds back. extricate implies the use of care or ingenuity in freeing from a difficult position or situation.