1
: severely injured or damaged by cutting, tearing, or crushing
a mangled foot
A special bed—a box lined with cottonwool—was made for the mangled pigeon while the Wilsons nursed it …—
Iain Macdonald
Iain Macdonald… mangled warplanes lie strewn across the desert floor, their wings and tails torn off, their fuselages punctured.—Richard Wolkomir
Richard Wolkomir2
: spoiled or made incoherent
a mangled message
mangled punctuation/syntax
This is a draft manuscript waiting for an editor to impose coherence and to smooth over mangled grammar, malapropisms and political oversimplifications.—Emily MacFarquhar
Emily MacFarquharExamples of mangled in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Moving the 947-foot-long Dali is a complex and risky task, given that the ship was pinned in place by thousands of tons of mangled steel.
—Campbell Robertson, New York Times, 20 May 2024
The process to refloat the ship and the salvage effort has been delicate and dangerous, involving giant floating cranes to move debris and relocate shipping containers, and using explosives to move tons of mangled steel and roadway.
—Rohan Mattu, CBS News, 20 May 2024
As part of an arcane pact with his wealthy boss Raymond (Dafoe) — who bankrolls the couple’s middle-class comfort and sends them lavish gifts of sports memorabilia like a mangled John McEnroe tennis racquet — Robert has basically surrendered all free will.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 May 2024
Nothing says love like a mangled horse being trucked away for euthanasia.
—Kathy Guillermo, The Mercury News, 3 May 2024
Today, pictures show clearly the mangled steel superstructure still attached to the Dali.
—Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 3 May 2024
Although it is not known whether the ship has been freed from the mangled mess, detonating the largest remaining section sitting across its bow is a major step.
—Greg Wehner, Fox News, 14 May 2024
About a week later, a passerby found Buckner’s mangled torso stuffed inside a black plastic garbage bag that was bound with duct tape near the Bay Farm Island Bridge in Alameda.
—Jakob Rodgers, The Mercury News, 13 May 2024
Photos of the wreckage showed the mangled aircraft still smoldering in a homeowner’s front yard.
—Tanasia Kenney, Miami Herald, 2 May 2024
Campbell Robertson, New York Times, 20 May 2024
The process to refloat the ship and the salvage effort has been delicate and dangerous, involving giant floating cranes to move debris and relocate shipping containers, and using explosives to move tons of mangled steel and roadway.
—Rohan Mattu, CBS News, 20 May 2024
As part of an arcane pact with his wealthy boss Raymond (Dafoe) — who bankrolls the couple’s middle-class comfort and sends them lavish gifts of sports memorabilia like a mangled John McEnroe tennis racquet — Robert has basically surrendered all free will.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 May 2024
Nothing says love like a mangled horse being trucked away for euthanasia.
—Kathy Guillermo, The Mercury News, 3 May 2024
Today, pictures show clearly the mangled steel superstructure still attached to the Dali.
—Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 3 May 2024
Although it is not known whether the ship has been freed from the mangled mess, detonating the largest remaining section sitting across its bow is a major step.
—Greg Wehner, Fox News, 14 May 2024
About a week later, a passerby found Buckner’s mangled torso stuffed inside a black plastic garbage bag that was bound with duct tape near the Bay Farm Island Bridge in Alameda.
—Jakob Rodgers, The Mercury News, 13 May 2024
Photos of the wreckage showed the mangled aircraft still smoldering in a homeowner’s front yard.
—Tanasia Kenney, Miami Herald, 2 May 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mangled.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near mangled
Cite this Entry
“Mangled.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mangled. Accessed 31 May. 2024.
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