/ˈɹævəl/, [ˈɹævl̩]
OriginThe 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”, and instead regards the noun as having derived from the verb (compare Dutch rafel, raffel (“frayed thread”)).
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.
- transitiveTo entwine or tangle (something) confusedly; to entangle.
“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 inter”
“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; […]”
“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.”
- also, figuratively, transitiveOften followed by up: to form (something) out of discrete elements, like weaving fabric from threads; to knit.
“[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 spid”
- transitiveTo 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.
“[Y]ou ſhall haue one vvoman knit more in a hovver then any man can Rauell agen in ſeauen and tvventy yeare.”
“If there be any fault in the verses, I can mend it extempore; for a stitch in a man's stocking not taken up in time, ravels out all the rest.”
“[S]ince the noble Chief / Ulyſſes is no more, preſs not as yet / My nuptials, wait 'till I ſhall finiſh, firſt, / A fun'ral robe […] Thenceforth, all day / She wove the ample web, and by the aid / Of ”
- figuratively, transitiveTo confuse or perplex (someone or something).
- archaic, figuratively, transitiveOften followed by out: to undo the intricacies of (a problem, etc.); to clarify, to disentangle.
“Make you to rouell^([sic]) all this matter out / That I eſſentially am not in madneſſe, / But mad in craft, […]”
- figuratively, obsolete, transitiveTo destroy or ruin (something), like unravelling fabric.
“[S]helter, ſhelter, if you be ſeene / All's ravell'd out agen: ſtand there private, / And you'le find the very opportunity / To call you forth, and place you at the Table.”
- transitiveIn the APL programming language: to reshape (a variable) into a vector.
- intransitiveOften 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.
“[G]ive him a broad ſide my brave boyes with your Pikes, branch me his ſkin in Flovvers like a Sattin, and betvveene ever Flovver a mortall cut, your Royalty ſhall ravell, […]”
“[S]plit that forked ſtick with ſuch a nick or notch at one end of it, as may keep the line from any more of it ravelling from about the ſtick, then ſo much of it as you intended; […]”
- also, figuratively, intransitiveOften followed by out: of clothing, fabric, etc.: to become unwoven; to fray, to unravel.
“But the real work of the First Thursday Foundation is remembering, and its biggest gift is knitting back together lives raveled by loss.”
- archaic, intransitive, obsoleteTo become entangled or snarled.
“[A]s you vnwinde her loue from him; / Least it ſhould rauell, and be good to none, / You muſt prouide to bottome it on me: / Which muſt be done, by praiſing me as much / As you, in worth diſpraiſe, ſi”
“Yet more there be who doubt his ways not juſt, / As to his edicts, found contradicting, / Then give the rains to wandring thought, / Regardleſs of his glories diminution; / Till by their own perplexit”
- Scotland, literaryA tangled mess; an entanglement, a snarl, a tangle.
“Mr. Urquhart was in sic a ravel after it that when he gies out the first line o' the hunder and nineteenth psalm for singing, says he, 'And so on to the end.'”
“There was a lovely ravel of sunflowers in the garden. She looked out the window. "There are my sunflowers!" she said.”
“The savannah valley is shadeless, spotted only with the thorny ravel of mesquite bushes.”
- Scotland, figuratively, literaryA confusing, intricate, or perplexing situation; a complication.
- also, figurativelyA thread which has unravelled from fabric, etc.; also, a situation of fabric, etc., coming apart; an unravelling.
- A male given name.
- A surname.
Formsravels(present, singular, third-person) · raveling(US, participle, present) · ravelling(UK, participle, present) · raveled(US, participle, past) · raveled(US, past) · ravelled(UK, participle, past) · ravelled(UK, past) · ravels(plural)