mangled

adjective

man·​gled ˈmaŋ-gəld How to pronounce mangled (audio)
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
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Police arrested 23-year-old Juventino Anastacio Florentino after his mangled sedan was found sitting in the driveway of a Staten Island home, police sources said. Kerry Burke, New York Daily News, 11 July 2025 Officers later arrived to find a mangled gray SUV, with its driver pinned underneath, according to a criminal complaint in the case. Chris Ramirez, jsonline.com, 9 July 2025 Crews have been working around the clock to find the missing, traversing swollen waterways and scouring riverbanks littered with mangled trees and rubble. Rebecca Morin, USA Today, 7 July 2025 Based on a cult comic by Greg Rucka and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, the film followed a group of mercenaries who had the gift of immortality — they could be stabbed and amputated and maimed and mangled and burnt while fighting and still miraculously come back. Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 2 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for mangled

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of mangled was in the 15th century

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Cite this Entry

“Mangled.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mangled. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.

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