Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Ravel
Rav′el
(răv′’l)
, Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Raveled
(-’ld)
or Ravelled
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Raveling
or Ravelling
.] [OD.
ravelen
, D. rafelen
, akin to LG. rebeln
, rebbeln
, reffeln
.] 1.
To separate or undo the texture of; to unravel; to take apart; to untwist; to unweave or unknit; – often followed by out;
as, to
ravel
a twist; to ravel
out a stocking.Sleep, that knits up the
raveled
sleave of care. Shakespeare
2.
To undo the intricacies of; to disentangle.
3.
To pull apart, as the threads of a texture, and let them fall into a tangled mass; hence, to entangle; to make intricate; to involve.
What glory’s due to him that could divide
Such
Such
raveled
interests? has the knot untied? Waller.
The faith of very many men seems a duty so weak and indifferent, is so often untwisted by violence, or
raveled
and entangled in weak discourses! Jer. Taylor.
Rav′el
,Verb.
I.
1.
To become untwisted or unwoven; to be disentangled; to be relieved of intricacy.
2.
To fall into perplexity and confusion.
[Obs.]
Till, by their own perplexities involved,
They
They
ravel
more, still less resolved. Milton.
3.
To make investigation or search, as by picking out the threads of a woven pattern.
[Obs.]
The humor of
raveling
into all these mystical or entangled matters. Sir W. Temple.
Webster 1828 Edition
Ravel
RAVEL
,Verb.
T.
1.
To entangle; to entwist together; to make intricate; to involve; to perplex.What glory's due to him that could divide such ravel'd inte'rests, has the knot unty'd?
2.
To untwist; to unweave or unknot; to disentangle; as, to ravel out a twist; to ravel out a stocking.Sleep, that knits up the ravel'd sleeve of care.
3.
to hurry or run over in confusion. [Not in use.]RAVEL
,Verb.
I.
1.
To fall into perplexity and confusion.Till by their own perplexities involv'd, they ravel more, still less resolv'd.
2.
To work in perplexities; to busy one's self with intricacies; to enter by winding and turning.It will be needless to ravel far into the records of elder times.
The humor of raveling into all these mystical or entangled matters - produced infinite diputes.
3.
To be unwoven.[As far as my observation extends, ravel, in the United States, is used only in the second sense above, viz. to unweave, to separate the texture of that which is woven or knit; so that ravel and unravel are with us always synonymous. etymology proves this to be the true sense of the word ravel.]