Link Centre Dictionary

Ravel

ra·vel

UK/ɹəˈvɛl/ US/ˈɹævəl/ rare archaic literary obsolete
noun (2) verb (2)

noun

1.

French composer and exponent of Impressionsim (1875-1937)

Synonyms
2.

a row of unravelled stitches

  • “she got a run in her stocking”
Synonyms

verb

1.

link with or as with a yoke

  • “yoke the oxen together”
Synonyms
2.

tangle or complicate

  • “a ravelled story”
Synonyms
Antonyms

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • ravel bread
  • ravel out

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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.