(The primary reference may have been to boats or oars caught in ‘tangle’ or sea-weed (this being the original sense of the sb.), but the wider sense appears in our earliest quots.)
I. To catch or impede with a tangle.
1. trans. To involve, impede, cause to stick fast in coils, network, or anything ‘tangled’ or interlaced. Hence in wider sense: To involve in surroundings that impede movement, or from which extrication is difficult.
α. 1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., I. III. (Arb.), 77. Attemptinge to goo throwgh the grasse & herbes they were soo entangled & bewrapte therin. Ibid. (Arb.), 193. In them [the sandes] many shyppes are entangled.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low-C. Warrs, 213. One of the greatest Ships … entangled with another Ships Cables.
1710. J. Clarke, trans. Rohault’s Nat. Phil. (1729), I. 115. All these Particles of Matter must be broken where-ever they are … intangled with those that join to them.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 42, ¶ 1. Lest she should entangle her Feet in her Petticoat.
1722. Sewel, Hist. Quakers (1759), I. III. 205. Being entangled in the ropes in leaping down.
1726. Thomson, Winter, 926. Entangled in the gathering ice.
1777. Watson, Philip II. (1839), 203. If any of them should … be entangled in the mud.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 236. A vessell entangled in the whirlpools.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 229/1. Agaric and sponge entangled the blood and retained a coagulum on the spot.
β. 1570. Levins, Manip., 128. Intangil, illaqueare.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countrey Farme, 317. Sheepe … loosing some of their lockes of Wooll vpon the hedges, are cause that the sillie poore Bees now and then become intangled therein.
b. esp. To catch or hold fast in a snare or net; to ensnare. Also fig.
α. 1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 741. The Devill is wont with such witchcrafts, to wrap and entangle the myndes of men.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. iv. 15. He will find himself entangled in words, as a bird in lime-twiggs.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 139, ¶ 1. The Snares in which France has entangled all her Neighbours.
1773. Burke, Sp. Relief Prot. Dissenters, Wks. X. 33. Nets that entangle the poor fluttering silken wings of a tender conscience.
1841. D’Israeli, Amen. Lit. (1867), 592. Entangled in the meshes of political parties.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. II. 40. Saturnian Jove hath in an evil net Entangled me most cruelly.
β. 1576. Fleming, Panoplie Ep., 287. They intangle themselves in the same webbes of woe.
1611. Bible, Matt. xxii. 15. Then went the Pharises, and tooke counsell, how they might intangle him in his talke.
1692. E. Walker, trans. Epictetus’ Mor., xxv. 32.
| Take care you be not here intangled by | |
| The too great lustre, that beguiles your eye. |
c. transf. To involve in intricate paths or among obstacles; also fig. with reference to a metaphorical ‘maze’ or ‘labyrinth.’
1611. Bible, Ex. xiv. 3. They are intangled in the land, the wildernesse hath shut them in.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Irene, Wks. 173. That labyrinth wherein they are like to intangle and lose themselves.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 90. Our Madagascar ship was so entangled among rocks and currents, that we gave her up for lost.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 29. Entangled in the mazes of metaphysic sophistry.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. x. (1865), 83. You get entangled in another man’s mind, even as you lose yourself in another man’s grounds.
1850. Prescott, Peru, II. 245. The Spanish commander became entangled in the defiles of the mountains.
† d. intr. To become entangled. Obs. rare.
1628. Cowley, Piramus & Thisbe, iv. A Bird … By struggling more entangles in the Gin.
a. 1673. Horton, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. xciv. 19. Boughs usually catch, and intangle one in another.
2. fig. To involve in difficulties; to engage (a person) in undertakings, quarrels, etc., from which it is difficult to withdraw; to embarrass, hamper; to involve in mental difficulties, perplex, bewilder. Formerly also absol. † to cause entanglements.
α. 1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 38 § 1. The vsurped power of the Byshoppe of Rome hath always entangled and troubled to the mere iurisdiction and regall power of this realme.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., II. IX. (Arb.), 132. I fynde my wytte more entangeled in the description hereof.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., IV. xiv. 48. Yea, very force entangles It selfe with strength.
1683. Temple, Mem., Wks. 1731, I. 411. Tho’ others were entangled still in some Difficulty or other.
1798. Nelson, 25 Oct., in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), III. 159. You will … not entangle yourself by undertaking to embark the troops for France.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, viii. 87. Getting entangled in a complimentary speech.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., IV. xviii. 52. The Pope … had endeavoured to entangle his nephew in the conspiracy.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc., I. xviii. 462. He was long entangled in Electro-chemistry.
β. 1563–87. Foxe, A. & M., III. 357. He might intangle himself, but should do his Brother no good.
1597. Daniel, Civ. Wares, I. lxxi. Intestine strife, of force, The apt-divided State intangle would.
1699. Burnet, 39 Art., i. (1700), 20. This is rather a flight of Metaphisicks that intangles one, than a plain and full conviction.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 22, ¶ 5. Intangled in consequences which she could not foresee.
† b. To bind by embarrassing engagements to another person. Obs.
1620. Horæ Subseciuæ, 106. A Prodigall … is so entangled to other men, that hee is neuer master of himselfe.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., vii. 331. Not being intangled to wife and children, etc.
c. To involve (a person) in compromising relations with another. Cf. 3.
1888. F. Hume, Mad. Midas, I. i. He became entangled with a lady whose looks were much better than her morals.
1888. Anna K. Green, Behind Closed Doors, iii. She could never have become entangled with him.
† d. To encumber (land, an estate). Obs.
1601–2. Fulbecke, 2nd Pt. Parall., 63 b. The partie morgaging, incumbring, entangling, or aliening the land.
1616. Sir R. Dudley, in Fortesc. Papers, 16. My Estate in England is entangled, partly by a suite in the Chauncery.
II. 3. To make tangled; to twist, interlace, or mix up in such a manner that a separation cannot easily be made.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., I. III. (Arb.), 77. The sea was euery where entangeled with Ilandes. Ibid., 196. The formes of their letters are muche more crooked and entangeled.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 199. They have not so soone clasped and intangled it [the trunke] with their taile, but they set their venomous teeth in the Elephants eare.
1671. Milton, Samson, 763. Entangl’d with a poisonous bosom snake.
1713. Lond. & Country Brewer, I. (1742), 50. The spirituous Parts are more entangled, and kept from making their Escape.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 27. 212. The flakes were wholly composed of these exquisite [snow] blossoms entangled together.
b. fig. To render (a subject, etc.) complicated or intricate; to complicate with.
1672. A. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 104. He had intangled the matter of Conscience with the Magistrates Power.
1677. Govt. Venice, 269. Your Scholars … rather intangle and perplex Councils than clear them.
1695. Ld. Preston, Boeth., V. 212. The Question … was intangled with many others.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. Mystery. Two other circumstances which entangled this mystery.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xxviii. 48. The story is entangled with legends.
