mangle1
/ˈmaŋɡ(ə)l
/verb [with object]
1Destroy or severely damage by tearing or crushing: the car was mangled almost beyond recognition...
- The smooth shell of the car was mangled beyond recognition.
- Two crushed and mangled pick-up trucks have been flipped on their side.
- The dais was in the form of a human whose skeleton was mangled beyond recognition.
Synonyms
mutilate, maim, disfigure, damage, injure, crush, crumple;
hack, cut about, lacerate, tear apart, rend, chop (up), butcher, deform, maul, wreck
1.1Ruin or spoil (a text, piece of music, etc.): he was mangling Bach on the piano...
- Actually, I don't think they physically cooked anything, they just stood around and watched their recipes being mangled by the in-house excuse for a chef.
- It then goes on to mangle the line ‘will things ever be the same again?’
- This got me thinking about how some mangled enunciation has become par for the course in pop music, and we don't really think it's weird anymore.
Synonyms
spoil, ruin, mar, mutilate, bungle, mess up, make a mess of, wreck
informal murder, make a hash of, muck up, screw up, butcher
Derivatives
mangler
/ noun ...- Humphrys has now let his rage against the army of word manglers off the leash.
- My resolutions, therefore, are for others, and in particular for some of the many manglers of the English language.
- For each national-anthem mangler, there was only one rendition standing between glory and defeat.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French mahangler, perhaps a frequentative of mahaignier 'maim'.
Rhymes
mangle2
/ˈmaŋɡ(ə)l/noun
A machine having two or more rollers turned by a handle, between which wet laundry is squeezed to remove excess moisture.‘If I wasn't at school, I had to turn the handle on the mangle while mum put the sheets through,’ Peter recalls....
- She does not have a TV and her washing machine is an archaic model involving rubber hoses and a handle-operated mangle.
- The garden also contains a vintage mechanical washing machine as well as antique ploughs, mangles and bacon slicers.
verb [with object]
Press or squeeze with a mangle: the hard household labour often involved pounding clothes in a dolly tub and mangling them with a hand wringer
Origin
Late 17th century: from Dutch mangel, from mangelen 'to mangle', from medieval Latin mango, manga, from Greek manganon 'axis, engine of war'.