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
They are mangled, bottled spiders of venom with humor and cutting, biting Irish lyricism.
—Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 5 June 2025
Debris from the aircraft was seen strewn along a nearby road and several other cars on the road were also charred and mangled and could be seen still smoldering hours later as the morning sky brightened.
—Michael Dorgan , Alexandra Koch, FOXNews.com, 22 May 2025
The mangled car caught fire while Arenas still was inside.
—Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2025
The building itself was left partially destroyed, and crews were still working to separate the mangled car from the structure.
—Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News, 24 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mangled
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Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 5 June 2025
Debris from the aircraft was seen strewn along a nearby road and several other cars on the road were also charred and mangled and could be seen still smoldering hours later as the morning sky brightened.
—Michael Dorgan , Alexandra Koch, FOXNews.com, 22 May 2025
The mangled car caught fire while Arenas still was inside.
—Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2025
The building itself was left partially destroyed, and crews were still working to separate the mangled car from the structure.
—Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News, 24 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mangled
Cite this Entry
“Mangled.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mangled. Accessed 17 Jun. 2025.
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