ravel🔊

(transitive)

To entwine or tangle (something) confusedly; to entangle.

(figuratively) ''Often followed by'' up: to form (something) out of discrete elements, like weaving fabric from threads; to knit.

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.

(figuratively)

# To confuse or perplex (someone or something).

# (archaic) ''Often followed by'' out: to undo the intricacies of (a problem, etc.); to clarify, to disentangle.

# (obsolete) To destroy or ruin (something), like unravelling fabric.

(programming) In the APL programming language: to reshape (a variable) into a vector.

(intransitive)

''Often 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.

(figuratively) ''Often followed by'' out: of clothing, fabric, etc.: to become unwoven; to fray, to unravel.

(obsolete) To become entangled or snarled.

(Scotland)

A tangled mess; an entanglement, a snarl, a tangle.

(figuratively) A confusing, intricate, or perplexing situation; a complication.

(figuratively) A thread which has unravelled from fabric, etc.; also, a situation of fabric, etc., coming apart; an unravelling.