mangled

Everyday

1. Badly crushed, twisted or torn so that it is spoilt. tree →
2. (of words or music) Spoilt by being said or played very badly. tree →
3. (old) Pressed through a mangle, a machine with rollers that squeezed water out of washing. tree →

In the lessons

In stories and news, a mangled car or bike tells the reader there was a bad crash. In everyday talk you can mangle a song or a foreign word. History: in Victorian times washing was pushed through a mangle. Alice mangles poems: her «How doth the little crocodile» comes out wrong.

Examples

• The bike was mangled after the crash. tree →
• The dog left a mangled slipper. tree →
• Alice mangled the poem, and the words came out all wrong. tree →
• He mangled the French phrase, and the waiter laughed. tree →
• Grandma remembers mangling the washing on Mondays. tree →
• The storm left mangled trees along the road. tree →
• Her mangled body was cast into the fount near Thebes, which still bears her name. tree →

Note

Mangle the verb is unrelated to «mango». Present: mangle; -ing form: mangling.