Mangle

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈmæŋ.ɡəl/

Definitions

1. To cause severe damage or distortion to an object or idea, often making it unrecognizable or dysfunctional To harm something beyond repair through extreme mishandling or alteration that leads to confusion To injure or modify an item or concept so drastically that it loses its original form or clarity
2. To inflict serious harm or disfigurement on an object or body ; to press or crush cloth roughly by machine to remove wrinkles or water ; to cut or tear meat coarsely, often making it unfit for presentation
3. To cause severe physical damage that ruins the original appearance or function ; to treat fabric by mechanically pressing it to smooth out creases ; to butcher an animal by hacking its flesh in a crude and disorderly way

Etymology: The verb "mangle" most likely descends from Old French verbs meaning "to cut to pieces" or "to mutilate," which came from a Germanic root that also gave English "mayhem." It reached English through Anglo-Norman "mangler" and by the Middle English period meant literally to hack or maim the body. The sense of spoiling something through clumsy handling developed from that violence, so a mangled sentence is a distant cousin of a mutilated limb. A separate "mangle" entered English around 1700 for an entirely different object: the machine that presses laundry between rollers. That name came from Dutch "mangel," which was itself borrowed from German. The German word traces back through Medieval Latin to the Greek "mánganon," a term for a kind of engine or device, and it is a doublet of "mangonel," the siege catapult. Spanish "mangle," the name of the mangrove tree, is a further unrelated word, probably borrowed from an Arawak or Cariban language of the Caribbean.

Synonyms: ruin, damage, wreck

Antonyms: repair, fix, restore