mangled

adjective

man·​gled ˈmaŋ-gəld 

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

… mangled warplanes lie strewn across the desert floor, their wings and tails torn off, their fuselages punctured.

—Richard Wolkomir

2

: 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

Examples of mangled in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Sport fishing has more than its share of wild stories, but there is nothing exaggerated about a growing plague of mangled fish being reeled in along the nation’s southern coastline, researchers say. —Mark Price, Miami Herald, 20 Feb. 2025

While the guests remain oblivious to the horrors Harry is experiencing off the boat, Captain Jason safely rescues Harry as producers scramble to find a way to stop Harry's mangled thumb from bleeding profusely. —Gina Ragusa, EW.com, 17 Feb. 2025

Helene killed more than 100 people and mangled infrastructure, washing out roads, power lines and water treatment facilities. —Mary Ramsey, Charlotte Observer, 24 Jan. 2025

When police arrived, both the 27-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man had already gotten out of the mangled wreck, police said. —Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 8 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for mangled

• angled
• dangled
• fangled
• jangled
• spangled
• strangled
• tangled
• wrangled
• disentangled
• entangled
• newfangled
• untangled