mangle 1. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

mangle¹

SYLLABICATION:	man·gle
PRONUNCIATION:	mnggl
TRANSITIVE VERB:	Inflected forms: man·gled, man·gling, man·gles 1. To mutilate or disfigure by battering, hacking, cutting, or tearing. See synonyms at batter¹. 2. To ruin or spoil through ineptitude or ignorance: mangle a speech.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English manglen, from Anglo-Norman mangler, frequentative of Old French mangoner, to cut to bits; akin to possibly akin to mahaignier, to maim. See mayhem.
OTHER FORMS:	mangler —NOUN


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.