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Unravel

//(ˌ)ʌnˈɹævl̩// verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To cause (something) to no longer be ravelled or tangled; to disentangle, to untangle. transitive

    "Mother couldn’t unravel the ball of wool after the cat had played with it."

  2. 2
    become undone wordnet
  3. 3
    To separate the threads of (something knitted or woven, such as clothing or fabric). transitive

    "Stop playing with the seam of the tablecloth! You’ll unravel it."

  4. 4
    become or cause to become undone by separating the fibers or threads of wordnet
  5. 5
    To separate the connected or united parts of (something); to throw (something) into disorder; to confound, to confuse, to disintegrate. figuratively, transitive

    "to unravel the broad consensus which was created"

Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    disentangle wordnet
  2. 7
    To clear (something) from complication or difficulty; to investigate and solve (a mystery, a problem, etc.); to disentangle, to unfold, to work out. also, figuratively, reflexive, transitive

    "to unravel the confusion    to unravel a plot"

  3. 8
    To reverse or undo (something); to annul, to negate. figuratively, obsolete, transitive

    "For everie time thou admitſt mee after, to thy / Pillovv, I'le ſtrike of an hundred pound, / Till all the debts be unravel'd: […]"

  4. 9
    To become no longer ravelled or tangled. intransitive
  5. 10
    Of threads: to become separated from something knitted or woven, such as clothing or fabric; also, of something knitted or woven: to separate into threads; to come apart. intransitive

    "[C]onſider him as a King, and what favours hath he beſtowed on his Subjects! and then, that his curteſies might not unravell or fret out, hath bound them with a ſtrong border and a rich fringe, a Triennial Parliament."

  6. 11
    Of a thing: to have its connected or united parts separated; to be thrown into disorder; to become confused or undone; to collapse. figuratively, intransitive

    "[W]hen men doe not iſhue out of a danger by a doore of Gods opening unto them, but breake through the vvall, (as Jerome by perjury) by violent and unvvarrantable vvayes, their minds are daily haunted vvith ſcruples and perplexities, even ſometimes to dolefull diſtraction; beſides, ſuch eſcapes never grovv proſperous, rather eaſing than curing, and the comfort got by them unraueleth againe, as it hapned in Jerome of Prague."

Etymology

PIE word *h₂énti From un- (suffix denoting the inverse of the specified action) + ravel. cognates * Dutch ontrafelen (“to unravel”)

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