mangle

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Collins

World English Dictionary

mangle¹ (ˈmæŋɡ^əl)

—vb
1.	to mutilate, disfigure, or destroy by cutting, crushing, or tearing
2.	to ruin, spoil, or mar

[C14: from Norman French mangler, probably from Old French mahaignier to maim]

'mangler¹

—n

'mangled¹

—*adj*

mangle² (ˈmæŋɡ^əl)

—n
1.	Also called: wringer a machine for pressing or drying wet textiles, clothes, etc, consisting of two heavy rollers between which the cloth is passed

—vb
2.	to press or dry in a mangle

[C18: from Dutch mangel, ultimately from Late Latin manganum. See mangonel]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

mangle

c.1400, from Anglo-Fr. mangler, freq. of O.Fr. mangoner "cut to pieces," of uncertain origin, perhaps connected with O.Fr. mahaignier "to maim, mutilate, wound" (see maim). Meaning "to mispronounce (words), garble" is from 1530s. Related: Mangled.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

Slang Dictionary

mangle

vt.
1. Used similarly to mung or scribble, but more violent in its connotations; something that is mangled has been irreversibly and totally trashed.
2. To produce the mangled name corresponding to a C++ declaration.

Jargon
Cite This Source

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

mangle definition

Used similarly to mung or scribble, but more violent in its connotations; something that is mangled has been irreversibly and totally trashed.

Example sentences

Instead they must mangle text in new ways when attackers figure out how to cope

with existing distortions.

Mangle other animal life all you want, but manipulating microscopic human cells

now you've gone too far.

If more electrical cables were placed under sidewalks to give utilities one

less reason to mangle city streets.

Maybe you'll mangle his paper clips, leave a book open on the wrong page, or

hide his basket of artificial petunias.

Enjoy Dictionary.com ad-free! Learn more

Related Words

maim flatwork hack hackle

haggle mingle-mangle tear worry

Matching Quote

"On the whole, it was not so impressive a scene as I might have expected. If I had found one body cast upon the beach in some lonely place, it would have affected me more. I sympathized rather with the winds and waves, as if to toss and mangle these poor human bodies was the order of the day. If this was the law of Nature, why waste any time in awe or pity? If the last day were come, we should not think so much about the separation of friends or the blighted prospects of individuals. I saw that corpses might be multiplied, as on the field of battle, till they no longer affected us in any degree as exceptions to the common lot of humanity. Take all the graveyards together, they are always the majority. It is the individual and private that demands our sympathy. A man can attend but one funeral in the course of this life, can behold but one corpse."

-Henry David Thoreau