Adjacent Words

Ravel definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RAVEL, v.t. rav'l.
1. To entangle; to entwist together; to make intricate; to involve; to perplex.
What glory's due to him that could divide such ravel'd inte'rests, has the knot unty'd?
2. To untwist; to unweave or unknot; to disentangle; as, to ravel out a twist; to ravel out a stocking.
Sleep, that knits up the ravel'd sleeve of care.
3. to hurry or run over in confusion. [Not in use.]
RAVEL, v.i. rav'l.
1. To fall into perplexity and confusion.
Till by their own perplexities involv'd, they ravel more, still less resolv'd.
2. To work in perplexities; to busy one's self with intricacies; to enter by winding and turning.
It will be needless to ravel far into the records of elder times.
The humor of raveling into all these mystical or entangled matters - produced infinite diputes.
3. To be unwoven.
[As far as my observation extends, ravel, in the United States, is used only in the second sense above, viz. to unweave, to separate the texture of that which is woven or knit; so that ravel and unravel are with us always synonymous. etymology proves this to be the true sense of the word ravel.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: French composer and exponent of Impressionism (1875-1937) [syn: Ravel, Maurice Ravel]
2: a row of unravelled stitches; "she got a run in her stocking" [syn: run, ladder, ravel] v
1: disentangle; "can you unravel the mystery?" [syn: ravel, unravel, ravel out] [ant: knot, ravel, tangle]
2: tangle or complicate; "a ravelled story" [syn: ravel, tangle, knot] [ant: ravel, ravel out, unknot, unpick, unravel, unscramble, untangle]

Merriam Webster's

biographical name (Joseph) Maurice 1875-1937 French composer • Ravelian adjective

Merriam Webster's

I. verb (-eled or -elled; -eling or ravelling) Etymology: Dutch rafelen, from rafel loose thread Date: 1582 transitive verb 1. a. to separate or undo the texture of ; unravel b. to undo the intricacies of ; disentangle 2. entangle, confuse intransitive verb 1. obsolete to become entangled or confused 2. to become unwoven, untwisted, or unwound ; fray 3. break up, crumble • raveler noun • ravelment noun II. noun Date: 1634 an act or result of raveling: as a. something tangled b. something raveled out; specifically a loose thread

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v. (ravelled, ravelling; US raveled, raveling) 1 tr. & intr. entangle or become entangled or knotted. 2 tr. confuse or complicate (a question or problem). 3 intr. fray out. 4 tr. (often foll. by out) disentangle, unravel, distinguish the separate threads or subdivisions of. --n. 1 a tangle or knot. 2 a complication. 3 a frayed or loose end. Etymology: prob. f. Du. ravelen tangle, fray out, unweave

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ravel Rav"el, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Raveledor Ravelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Raveling or Ravelling.] [. ravelen, D. rafelen, akin to LG. rebeln, rebbeln, reffeln.] 1. To separate or undo the texture of; to take apart; to untwist; to unweave or unknit; -- often followed by out; as, to ravel a twist; to ravel out a sticking.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ravel Rav"el, v. i. 1. To become untwisted or unwoven; to be disentangled; to be relieved of intricacy. 2. To fall into perplexity and confusion. [Obs.] Till, by their own perplexities involved, They ravel more, still less resolved. --Milton. 3. To make investigation or search, as by picking out the threads of a woven pattern. [Obs.] The humor of raveling into all these mystical or entangled matters. --Sir W. Temple.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Disentangle, untwist, unravel, unweave, take apart, unroll, undo, unwind. 2. Entangle, entwist, involve, make intricate, net, perplex.

Moby Thesaurus

Chinese puzzle, Gordian knot, Rube Goldberg contraption, answer, ball up, bottom, can of worms, clarify, clear up, complex, complicate, confound, confuse, crack, debug, decipher, decode, disembroil, disentangle, disintricate, disinvolve, divine, do, dope, dope out, embrangle, entangle, explain, fathom, figure out, find out, find the answer, find the solution, foul up, get, get right, guess, guess right, have it, hit it, implicate, interpret, involve, jungle, knot, labyrinth, louse up, make out, maze, meander, mesh, mess, mess up, mix up, muck, muck up, muddle, open the lock, perplex, plumb, psych, psych out, puzzle out, ramify, ravel out, resolve, riddle, screw up, snafu, snake pit, snarl, snarl up, solve, sort out, tangle, tangled skein, unbraid, unclutter, uncoil, undo, unknot, unlock, unmix, unravel, unriddle, unscramble, unsnarl, untangle, unthread, untwine, untwist, unweave, unwind, webwork, wheels within wheels, wilderness, work, work out