ravel

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See also: Ravel

English[edit]

WOTD – 28 December 2021

Etymology[edit]

The verb is borrowed from Dutch ravelen, rafelen (“to tangle, become entangled; to fray; to unweave”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain. It has been suggested that the verb is originally derived from the noun, but the Oxford English Dictionary regards this as “very uncertain”,[1] and instead regards the noun as having derived from the verb (compare Dutch rafel, raffel (“frayed thread”)).[2]

Ravel is a contranym having both the senses of tangling (verb senses 1.1, 1.2, 1.4.1, and 2.3; noun sense 1) and untangling (verb senses 1.3, 1.4.2, 1.4.3, 2.1, and 2.2; noun sense 2). It would appear that the tangling senses predate the untangling ones (as in Dutch), but this is uncertain because the first published uses of both senses of the words occur around the same time.[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

ravel (third-person singular simple present ravels, present participle ravelling or (US) raveling, simple past and past participle ravelled or (US) raveled)

  1. (transitive)
    1. To entwine or tangle (something) confusedly; to entangle.
      Antonyms: disentangle, unravel, untangle
      • 1653, Jeremy Taylor, “Twenty-five Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Winter Half-year, […]: Sermon XIII. [Of Lukewarmness and Zeal; or, Spiritual Fervour.] Part II.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. […], volume V, London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. […]; and Richard Priestley, […], published 1822, →OCLC, page 190:
        For the faith of very many men seems a duty so weak and indifferent, is so often untwisted by violence, or ravelled and entangled in weak discourses, or so false and fallacious by its mixture of interest, that though men usually put most confidences in the pretences of faith, yet no pretences are most unreasonable.
      • 1706, [Daniel Defoe], “Book VIII”, in Jure Divino: A Satyr. […], London: [P. Hills?], →OCLC, page 188:
        When paſſive Thouſands ſtretch beneath his Sword, / And freely die at his Imperial Word, / Thoſe wild, unhappy, ſelf-defending Few, / If not deſtroy'd in Time, will ravel all the Clew; […]
      • 1896, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “Tommy the Scholar”, in Sentimental Tommy: The Story of His Boyhood, London, Paris: Cassell and Company […], →OCLC, page 338:
        What trade would not be the worse of him? […] [M]ake a clerk of him, and he would only ravel the figures; send him to the soldiering, and he would have a sudden impulse to fight on the wrong side.
    2. (also figuratively) Often followed by up: to form (something) out of discrete elements, like weaving fabric from threads; to knit.
      Antonym: unravel
      • 1960 May 28, Walt Kelly, Pogo, comic strip, →ISBN, page 149:
        [Magazine staffer about his political team:] Pencils at the ready, keen brains agleam behind intelligent horn rims, these experts spread out to ravel the loose ends of White-Housing, web-spinning spiders for [the presidential candidate].
    3. To unwind (a reel of thread, a skein of yarn, etc.); to pull apart (cloth, a seam, etc.); to fray, to unpick, to unravel; also, to pull out (a string of yarn, a thread, etc.) from a piece of fabric, or a skein or reel.
    4. (figuratively)
      1. To confuse or perplex (someone or something).
        Synonym: involve
      2. (archaic) Often followed by out: to undo the intricacies of (a problem, etc.); to clarify, to disentangle.
        Synonym: untangle
      3. (obsolete) To destroy or ruin (something), like unravelling fabric.
    5. (programming) In the APL programming language: to reshape (a variable) into a vector.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. Often followed by out: of a reel of thread or skein of yarn; or a thread on a reel or a string of yarn in a skein, etc.: to become untwisted or unwound.
    2. (also figuratively) Often followed by out: of clothing, fabric, etc.: to become unwoven; to fray, to unravel.
      • 2011 September 10, Martha T. Moore, “After 9/11, dinner gang raises funds to honor those lost”, in USA Today‎[1], McLean, Va.: Gannett Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 7 January 2012:
        But the real work of the First Thursday Foundation is remembering, and its biggest gift is knitting back together lives raveled by loss.
    3. (archaic or obsolete) To become entangled or snarled.

Usage notes[edit]

  • The spellings ravelling and ravelled are more common in the United Kingdom than in the United States.

Conjugation[edit]

Conjugation of ravel
infinitive (to) ravel
present tense past tense
1st-person singular ravel raveled
2nd-person singular ravel, ravelest† raveled, raveledst†
3rd-person singular ravels, raveleth† raveled
plural ravel
subjunctive ravel raveled
imperative ravel —
participles ravelling, raveling (US) ravelled, raveled (US)

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

to entwine or tangle (something) confusedly — see entangle,‎ tangle
to form (something) out of discrete elements — see knit
to confuse or perplex (someone or something) — see confuse,‎ perplex
of clothing, fabric, etc.: to become unwoven — see fray,‎ unravel

Noun[edit]

ravel (plural ravels)

  1. (chiefly literary or Scotland)
    1. A tangled mess; an entanglement, a snarl, a tangle.
      Synonym: ravelment
    2. (figuratively) A confusing, intricate, or perplexing situation; a complication.
  2. (also figuratively) A thread which has unravelled from fabric, etc.; also, a situation of fabric, etc., coming apart; an unravelling.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

tangled mess — see entanglement,‎ snarl,‎ tangle
situation of fabric, etc., coming apart — see unravelling

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “ravel, v.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2021; “ravel, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “ravel, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2021; “ravel, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022..

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

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