ravel

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“
This attachment is also called a ravel or raivel; and folk-names for it (not in the dictionary) were wrathe and rake; the latter a very good descriptive title The warp-threads next are drawn through the interspaces between two dents or strips of the sley or reed.

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Definitions (30)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. transitive verb To separate the fibers or threads of (cloth, for example); unravel.
  2. transitive verb To clarify by separating the aspects of.
  3. transitive verb To tangle or complicate.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (16)

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

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Examples (50)

  • T­here is a w­ay­ t­o­ t­ake y­o­ur favo­rit­e aut­ho­r w­it­h y­o­u w­hile y­o­u t­ravel, w­o­rk o­r simp­ly­ relax b­y­ t­he p­o­o­l. —  xml's Blinklist.com
  • This attachment is also called a ravel or raivel; and folk-names for it (not in the dictionary) were wrathe and rake; the latter a very good descriptive title The warp-threads next are drawn through the interspaces between two dents or strips of the sley or reed. —  Home Life in Colonial Days
  • A woman with a thimble-full of woman-wit could ravel them both up--ravel them up like a cut of worsteds Well, the day is near over. —  A Knight of the Nets
  • Lest it should ravel, and be good to none, —  Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies
  • The line of their fate that I ravel! " —  Kormáks saga. English
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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 (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Obsolete Dutch ravelen, from ravel, loose thread.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also reavel and (as a variant of the noun) revel; early modern English also *rivel, ryvell (from Old French riuler, unravel, from Low German); from Middle Dutch ravelen, entangle (Latin intricare, Kilian), ravel (Hexam, Sewel) (uit ravelen, ravel out, unravel), Dutch rafelen, unravel, unweave, =Low German reffeln, rebeln, rebbeln, unravel, unweave; origin unknown. There is no obvious connection with G. raffeln, snatch up, rake, raffel, a rake, grate for flax, from raffen, snatch: see raff, raffle.
  2. Formerly or dial. also revel; from ravel, v.
 

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/ˈrævɛl/
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