mangle
/ˈmæŋɡəl/
verb
- To damage or ruin something by cutting, tearing, or crushing it badly.
- The dog mangled the new toy in just a few minutes.
- He accidentally mangled the letter when he tried to open it with a knife.
- The car was mangled in the terrible accident.
- To ruin or spoil something, such as a speech, piece of music, or plan, by doing it very badly.
- The politician mangled the quote, making it sound completely different.
- The nervous student mangled his presentation in front of the class.
- She mangled the song by forgetting the lyrics and playing the wrong notes.
- To press or squeeze cloth through rollers to remove water, as part of an old-fashioned laundry process.
- They still have an antique mangle in the museum that was used to mangle clothes.
- The laundress used a heavy machine to mangle the linens until they were flat.
- In the old days, people would mangle wet sheets to wring out the water.
noun
- A machine with rollers used to press or squeeze water out of wet laundry, or to smooth cloth.
- She fed the wet tablecloth through the mangle to remove the excess water.
- The old mangle in the basement was used to press the family's shirts.
- The museum displayed a 19th-century mangle used in homes before electric dryers.