mangle

Word family

man·gle1 /ˈmæŋɡəl/ verb [transitiveT]

1 DAMAGEto damage or injure something badly by crushing or twisting it 压坏；扭伤

The trap closed round her leg, badly mangling her ankle.

夹子夹住了她的腿，使她的脚踝受了重伤。

2 to spoil something such as a speech or piece of music, by saying or playing it badly 糟蹋〔如蹩脚地演讲或拙劣地演奏〕

The orchestra had mangled Bach’s music.

那个乐团糟蹋了巴赫的音乐。

—mangled adjectiveadj [only before noun]

the mangled remains of the aircraft

面目全非的飞机残骸

Examples from the Corpus

mangle• Those of an unkind disposition might argue that mangling a non-first-class attack is not an especially big deal.• A mangled bicycle lay by the railroad tracks.• As far as anybody knew, he'd mangled himself while helping a friend with some car repairs.• He had mangled his hand in machinery at the potato mill.• People joke about Branston's ability to mangle the English language.• The impact had mangled the plane but not caused a fire.

Related topics: Cleaning

mangle2 noun [countableC]

DHCa machine used in former times to remove water from washed clothes by pressing them between two rollers 〔过去用于压去已洗净衣服水分的〕轧布机，轧液机

Examples from the Corpus

mangle• The yard in front of the cottage was littered with discarded buckets, an old bath, a mangle and a pile of driftwood.• On one occasion, the owner of the house got both hands caught in a mangle.• The extra power in his mechanized hands had acted like a mangle.• I still have the big iron mangle she used to wring out the clothes.• Note the rollers of the mangle carved on either side of the window frame.• He pushed the harmonium into the place where the mangle had stood, then sat down to sup his mug of tea.

Origin mangle1

(1300-1400) Anglo-French mangler, from Old French maynier; → MAIM

mangle2

(1600-1700) Middle Dutch mangel, from Middle High German mange “mangle, military weapon for throwing rocks”

man·gle1 verbmangle2 noun

Chinese

Syllable

Corpus