Sc. and north. dial. [Of uncertain origin: perh. belonging to TANGLE sb.1 or 2, or due to a vague combination of the two notions, or to some association with dangle.]
1. A pendent icicle. Sc.
1673. Wedderburn’s Voc., 34. (Jam.). Stiria, a tangle of yce.
1813. E. Picken, Misc. Poems, I. 77 (E.D.D.), Frae ilk buss, the tangles gay, Hang skinklin’ in the mornin’ ray.
1888. Barrie, Auld Licht Idylls, i. The waterspout that suspends its ‘tangles’ of ice over a gaping tank.
2. A tall and limp or flaccid person. Sc.
1789. Ross, Helenore (ed. 3), 21. She’s but a tangle, tho’ shot out she be.
3. Anything long and dangling, as a tress of hair, a long root-fiber, a torn loosely pendent strip of cloth, etc.
1864. S. Bamford, Homely Rhymes, etc., 148. Her bonny tangles Were hung wi star-spangles.
1892. M. C. F. Morris, Yorksh. Folk-talk, 386. When t’ tang’ls is brokken they [potatoes] can’t taatie.
1904. Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v. (W. Yks.), Her gown was all rives and tangles.
4. Applied to plants having long, winding, and often tangled stalks, as the species of Myriophyllum (Water Milfoil) and Potamogeton (Pondweed); and to plants of tangled growth, as Blue Tangle(s (U.S.), Red Tangle: see quots.
1857. Dunglison, Med. Lex., Tangles, Blue, Gaylussacia dumosa.
1866. Treas. Bot., Blue Tangle, an American name for Gaylussacia frondosa.
1886. Britten & Holl., Eng. Plant-n., Tangle, Red, Cuscuta Epithymum.
b. Comb. tangle-berry = Blue Tangles (see 4), DANGLE-BERRY.
