Library / English Dictionary

MANGLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("mangle" is a kind of...):

clothes drier; clothes dryer (a dryer that dries clothes wet from washing)

Derivation:

mangle (press with a mangle)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Destroy or injure severely

Example:

The madman mutilates art work

Synonyms:

cut up; mangle; mutilate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "mangle" is one way to...):

damage (inflict damage upon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

mangler (a person who mutilates or destroys or disfigures or cripples)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Alter so as to make unrecognizable

Example:

The tourists murdered the French language

Synonyms:

mangle; murder; mutilate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "mangle" is one way to...):

distort; falsify; garble; warp (make false by mutilation or addition; as of a message or story)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Injure badly by beating

Synonyms:

mangle; maul

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "mangle" is one way to...):

blemish; deface; disfigure (mar or spoil the appearance of)

"Mangle" entails doing...:

injure; wound (cause injuries or bodily harm to)

mar; mutilate (destroy or injure severely)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

mangler (a person who mutilates or destroys or disfigures or cripples)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Press with a mangle

Example:

mangle the sheets

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "mangle" is one way to...):

iron; iron out; press (press and smooth with a heated iron)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They mangle the cape

Derivation:

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

Credits

 Context examples: 

Hans, still grasping the gun, felt sure that the Indian attributed to him the mangled corpses.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

When we cried, and made it up, and were so blest again, that the back kitchen, mangle and all, changed to Love's own temple, where we arranged a plan of correspondence through Miss Mills, always to comprehend at least one letter on each side every day!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The flowers which had been round her neck we found upon her mother's bosom, and her throat was bare, showing the two little wounds which we had noticed before, but looking horribly white and mangled.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

There was something horrible in the ferocious energy of Berks’s hitting, every blow fetching a grunt from him as he smashed it in, and after each I gazed at Jim, as I have gazed at a stranded vessel upon the Sussex beach when wave after wave has roared over it, fearing each time that I should find it miserably mangled.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Quite naturally he found himself at a mangle, feeding starched cuffs.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The men outside shouted and applauded, while Beauty Smith, in an ecstasy of delight, gloated over the ripping and mangling performed by White Fang.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Amazed and dizzy, the defenders, clutching at the cracking parapets for support, saw great stones, burning beams of wood, and mangled bodies hurtling past them through the air.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then the calf of his leg was badly lacerated and looked as though it had been mangled by a bulldog.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When, under cover of the night, I flew to Miss Mills, whom I saw by stealth in a back kitchen where there was a mangle, and implored Miss Mills to interpose between us and avert insanity.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

At seven in the evening they broke off to run the hotel linen through the mangle.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)