RAVEL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Ravel

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/rˈævəl/ /rəvˈɛl/ Listen

verb

Ravel v. t. (past & past part. raveled or ravelled; pres. part. raveling or ravelling)

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."

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 raveled interests? has the knot untied?" "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!"

Ravel v. 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 ravel more, still less resolved."

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."

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Etymology of 'Ravel'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ravel" Quotes from Famous Books

... a Neat Buttonhole.—To make a neat buttonhole in thin white material that is likely to ravel when cut, take a piece of white soap and apply it to the back of the goods using enough to make a generous coat. Cut the buttonhole and work; you will find that the work is easily done and the ...

— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter

... third at the Rito, although unknown to them, also began to see the truth gradually with a distinctness that was fearful, that was crushing to him. That man was the head war-chief, Topanashka Tihua. A series of logical deductions brought him to ravel step by step the game that was being played. He saw now why Tzitz hanutsh had been made to bear the first assault. It was on account of Shotaye. But as the demand was put, it involved ultimately the question of residence, and consequently ...

— The Delight Makers • Adolf Bandelier

... easy at a first performance to take in everything with both eye and ear, and I shall excuse myself from attempting to do justice to M. RAVEL'S music. But I was free (the curtain being down) to listen to one long orchestral passage which followed the capture of Chloe. It was of the nature of a dirge, and it seemed to me to suggest very cleverly the sorrows of a poultry-yard. I suppose Chloe must have been ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, June 17, 1914 • Various

... within its slender rind Life's golden threads in endless circles wind; Maze within maze the lucid webs are roll'd, And, as they burst, the living flame unfold. 385 The pulpy acorn, ere it swells, contains The Oak's vast branches in its milky veins; Each ravel'd bud, fine film, and fibre-line Traced with nice pencil on the small design. The young Narcissus, in it's bulb compress'd, 390 Cradles a second nestling on its breast; In whose fine arms a younger embryon lies, Folds its thin leaves, and shuts its floret-eyes; Grain ...

— The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin

... I am a girl, clever, wayward, shallow. But I am more! Show me thy loftiest thought and I will match it, the deepest puzzle of thy mind and I will make it clear. Of one blood we are, and love can ravel up our little difference and make us grow one indeed. One end we have, one land we love, one vow binds us both. Take me to thy heart, Harmachis, set me by thee on the Double Throne, and I swear that I will lift thee higher than ever ...

— Cleopatra • H. Rider Haggard

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