embroil

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“
I wish, by some Such conveyance, you would tell me a little of your mind on all this embroil, and whether you approve or disapprove my conduct.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. transitive verb To involve in argument, contention, or hostile actions: "Avoid . . . any step that may embroil us with Great Britain” (Alexander Hamilton).
  2. transitive verb To throw into confusion or disorder; entangle.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • I wish, by some Such conveyance, you would tell me a little of your mind on all this embroil, and whether you approve or disapprove my conduct. —  The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 3
  • He will not lose his patron, Lord Hervey, (286) so soon as I imagined; he begins to recover I believe the Euston embroil is adjusted; I was with Lady Caroline Fitzroy on Friday evening; there were her brother and the bride, and quite bridal together, quite honeymoonish I forgot to tell you that the prince was not at the opera; I believe it has been settled that he should go thither on Tuesdays, and Majesty on Saturdays, that they may not meet. —  The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1
  • The Countess-mother has been in an embroil, (as we have often known her,) about carrying Miss Shelly, a bosom-friend, into the Peeresses' place at the trials. —  The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1
  • The objective of [the Hizbullah cell was] ... to embroil Egypt in a confrontation with Israel. " —  YID With LID
  • U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today that the crisis is threatening to embroil the entire region. —  Top Stories - Google News
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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Used in the same contextWord Family

embroil:   embroiled
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French embrouiller : en-, intensive pref.; see en-1 + brouiller, to confuse (from Old French; see broil2).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from em- + broil. apparently confused with embroil.
  2. from Old French embroillir, enbroillir, embrouillir, become troubled, confused, or soiled, later and modern F. embrouiller (= Spanish embrollar = Portuguese embrulhar = Italian imbrogliare), entangle, confuse, embroil, from en- + brouiller, confuse, jumble: see broil.
  3. from embroil, v.
 

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/ɛmˈbrɔɪl/
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