ravels

Verb

ravel (third-person singular simple present ravels, present participle (US) raveling or (UK) ravelling, simple past and past participle (US) raveled or (UK) ravelled)

1. (transitive) To 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 interest, that though men usually put most confidences in the pretences of faith, yet no pretences are...1653, “Twenty-five Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Winter Half-year, […]: Sermon XIII. [Of Lukewarmness and Zeal; or, Spiritual Fervour.] Part II.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The...

   Synonyms:

   mat, snarl, enmesh, ensnare, ensnarl, entangle, foul, implicate, imply, involve

   Antonyms:

   disentangle, unravel, untangle, feeze, tease out, unsnarl

2. (also, figuratively, transitive) Often 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 spiders for [the presidential candidate].1960 May 28, Walt Kelly, Pogo, comic strip, →ISBN, page 149

   Synonyms:

   knit, weave

   Antonyms:

   unravel, unweave

3. (transitive) To 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.1607, attributed to Thomas Middleton or Cyril Tourneur, The Revengers Tragædie. […], London: […] G[eorge] Eld, […], →OCLC, Act II
4. (figuratively, transitive) To confuse or perplex (someone or something).

   Synonyms:

   confound, involve, puzzle, addle, baffle, vex, lose, embroil, stick, stump

5. (archaic, figuratively, transitive) Often 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, […]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604...

   Synonyms:

   iron out, unravel, untangle, absolve, decipher, get to the bottom of, meliorate, puzzle out, reason out, resolve

6. (figuratively, obsolete, transitive) To 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.c. 1613, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, “Wit at Several Weapons. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC...

   Synonyms:

   disintegrate, race, unmake, destroy, annihilate, aerosolize, atomize, benothing, bewreck, blot out

See all 15 meanings of ravel