ravel

IPA: rˈævʌɫ

(chiefly literary or Scotland)
A tangled mess; an entanglement, a snarl, a tangle.
(figuratively) A confusing, intricate, or perplexing situation; a complication.
(also figuratively) A thread which has unravelled from fabric, etc.; also, a situation of fabric, etc., coming apart; an unravelling.
A male given name

(transitive)
To entwine or tangle (something) confusedly; to entangle.
(also 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.
(also figuratively) Often followed by out: of clothing, fabric, etc.: to become unwoven; to fray, to unravel.
(archaic or obsolete) To become entangled or snarled.

Examples of "ravel" in Sentences