Link Centre Dictionary

mangle

UK/ˈmæŋ.ɡ(ə)l/ US/ˈmeɪ̯ŋ.ɡ(ə)l/ rare archaic us

noun

1.

clothes dryer for drying and ironing laundry by passing it between two heavy heated rollers

verb

1.

press with a mangle

  • “mangle the sheets”
2.

injure badly by beating

Synonyms
3.

alter so as to make unrecognizable

  • “The tourists murdered the French language”
4.

destroy or injure severely

  • “The madman mutilates art work”

Origin

From Middle English mangelen, manglen, from Anglo-Norman mangler, mahangler, frequentative of either Old French mangonner (“to cut to pieces”) or mahaigner (“to mutilate”), of Germanic origin, for which see mayhem. Alternate etymology derives mangle from Middle English *mankelen, a frequentative form of manken (“to mutilate”), from Old English *mancian, bemancian (“to maim”). More at mank.

Phrases

  • put through the mangle

Related words

Narrower terms

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.