Definition of "tangle"

By the afternoon it seemed as if the storm had passed and that frost was setting in; but in the evening the wind rose to gale force, bringing telegraph poles down like skittles and tangling power and telephone lines.

1960 March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 137

Compared to the last time they'd tangled with the U.S. Navy's carriers, the antiaircraft fire had been much, much more effective, even if the Wildcats hadn't done particularly well in their intercepts. They couldn't know it, of course, but the officer aboard Enterprise who'd recommended recarpeting the ship with 20-mm Oerlikons had, at least partially, been listened to, and the effect on the Japanese Navy's elite aircrews had been devastating.

2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 19:47 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN)‎, archived from the original on 4 December 2022

After a few attempts at counseling, they separated in January 2015. Since then, they have tangled in the courts.

2021 August 20, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Who Gets the L.L.C.? Inside a Silicon Valley Billionaire’s Divorce.”, in The New York Times‎

tangled in amorous nets

1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], page 2

When my simple weakness strays, / Tangled in forbidden ways.

1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple

This is a book about the potential for the reclamation, reform, and enlightened transformation of the most expansive elements of the liberal tradition— that social and economic justice remain tangled in liberalism's web of pretentious institutions and betrayed promises is the reason for this battle from within.

2001, Christine A. Kelly, Tangled Up in Red, White, and Blue: New Social Movements in America

He spent the night at a friend's place unable to sleep and wondering how he got himself tangled in this mess.

2004, Eve Ikuenobe-Otaigbe, Tangled, page 80

Why else would she have tangled him in spells of illusion to get him to keep her company?

2014, Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory, The House of the Four Winds

Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.

2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847

[…] if with thee the roaring wells⁠Should gulf him fathom-deep in brine;⁠And hands so often clasp’d in mine,Should toss with tangle and with shells.

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto X

You've never smelled the tangle o' the Isles.

1917, “The Road to the Isles”, in Kenneth Macleod, editor, Songs of the Hebrides