Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To undo or ravel the knitted fabric of.
- v. To separate (entangled threads).
- v. To separate and clarify the elements of (something mysterious or baffling); solve. See Synonyms at solve.
- v. To become unraveled.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To disentangle or separate, as threads; especially, to take out the threads of (textile material). See ravel.
- To clear from complication or difficulty; unriddle; unfold.
- To separate the connected or united parts of; throw into disorder.
- To unfold or bring to a denouement, as the plot or intrigue of a play.
- To be unfolded; be disentangled.
Wiktionary
- v. to separate the threads (of)
- v. intransitive to become undone
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To disentangle; to disengage or separate the threads of.
- v. Hence, to clear from complication or difficulty; to unfold; to solve.
- v. To separate the connected or united parts of; to throw into disorder; to confuse.
- v. To become unraveled, in any sense.
WordNet 3.0
- v. become or cause to become undone by separating the fibers or threads of
- v. become undone
- v. disentangle.
Examples
“Quite why she told a lie which was always going to unravel is a bit of a puzzle.”
“Nursing a strange psychiatric history and one it's difficult to unravel from the heroin addiction, a chicken-egg situation, but whatever the conclusions Anna Kavan's psyche seems to have been all a bit of a debilitating muddle.”
“Watching the Brubaker familys lives unravel is the best way to see the stuff from which theyre really made.”
Present Value: Summary and book reviews of Present Value by Sabin Willett.
“Either the New Deal has to unravel, which is what we hope for, or else the authoritarians”
“Nuevelle said she began to "unravel" during an argument in which she said that Albert threatened to use her authority to make sure Nuevelle never saw her own son again.”
The Washington Post: D.C. judge's ex-girlfriend gets 5 years in prison
“What the AP should have focused on were the results that showed that their reporting yesterday about the Bush Administration beginning to "unravel" in the eyes of the American public was as accurate as it could be.”
“The ensuing scandal threatened, in the words of Federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein, to "unravel" the remaining 60 "War" cases.”
Peter Lance: Feds Move Terrorist Close to Key Murder Witness
“By "unravel" they mean he becomes violent and shoots people.”
“KING: What's it like to have your whole life kind of unravel before people?”
“And what we need to do is kind of unravel that and get as much information as possible.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘unravel’.
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sdamle1
echt
echt, apocalypse, resurgence, forthright, logorrhea, mercurial, torrid, exorcise, obscure, intrusive, morose, vindictive and 94 more...
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movement (fast)
words describing fast action or movement
( open list, randomness, descriptive )
related:
http://www.wordnik.com...hurry, run, scamper, skip, stride, stampede, trample, scramble, dart, spring, spin, sprint and 141 more...
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movement (slow)
words describing slow action or movement
( open list, randomness, descriptive )
related:
http://www.wordnik.co...creep, crawl, plod, slouch, idle, lumber, tiptoe, bend, amble, mosey, saunter, loiter and 117 more...
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Undo
A list of terms that denote separating one thing from another, or deconstructing a thing into its parts or to a former state. E.g., untie, divorce, unscramble.
untie, divorce, unscramble, disunite, disjoin, undo, separate, disassemble, uncouple, unhitch, disassociate, disaffiliate and 185 more...
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EN - unverbs
Funnily, 'un-VERBs' are much less common as stand-alone units than in suffixed derivatives (unbelievable - but *unbelieve, unexpectedly - but *unexpect, uninsured - but *uninsure, etc.) Can you fin...
unbox, unpack, unlike, unveil, unlink, uncover, unfold, undo, unamen, unadorn, unalign, unbound and 22 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Un-word List
untrammelled, untoward, unenthusiastically, unenthusiastic, undaunted, uncanny, unceasing, unbridled, unacknowledged, unacquainted, unadorned, unaffected and 239 more...
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lanas's Words
serendipitous, insouciant, charming, sanguine, dear, odd, quaint, small, tremble, blush, flirt, tryst and 248 more...
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Mimi
sober, rhetoric, oratory, ergo, venom, diaphragm, Medieval, piety, incognito, ruse, calamity, evidence and 251 more...
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My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
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What Do You Mean @
What Abt these ... :)
somber, self effacing, conundrum, outlandish, mesmerize, endemic, shelve, fledgling, acolyte, absurd, rampant, narcissist and 163 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
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synantonyms
Words that should be antonyms, but aren't.
Some say pseudantonym, but I don't like to.ravel, unravel, flammable, inflammable, thaw, unthaw, worm, deworm, color, discolor, valuable, invaluable and 12 more...
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Denis
New words to learn
wade out into, rummage, feisty, circuitous, politic, premonition, abundant, intricate, slush, transcend, aspire, prolific and 3 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for unravel.
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