ppl. a. [f. TANGLE v.1 + -ED1.] Interlaced or intertwined in a complicated and confused manner; matted, mixed up confusedly; fig. complicated, intricate.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 125. His speech was like a tangled chaine: nothing impaired, but all disordered.
1634. Milton, Comus, 181. The blind mazes of this tangl’d Wood.
a. 1717. Parnell, Health, 45. I lead where Stags thro’ tangled Thickets tread.
1750. Shenstone, Rural Elegance, 204. The tangled vetch’s purple bloom.
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. xvii. Oh what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive!
1874. M. Creighton, Hist. Ess., i. (1902), 20. The tangled thread of Italian politics.
