as in to fumble
to make or do (something) in a clumsy or unskillful way
you've mangled this so badly that we'll have to do it over
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Recent Examples of mangle
The incident, which left his blue vintage vehicle mangled, also injured his girlfriend, Leticia Cline.
—
Anna Kaufman, USA Today, 15 Sep. 2025
And, to mangle an old saying, in the land of non-duplexing and manual-duplexing ADFs, the reversing ADF is king.
—PC Magazine, 28 Aug. 2025
Fatal crashes with pedestrians ‘mangle their bodies’ In 2023, over 1,300 people died in California in crashes that were determined to involve speeds over the speed limit or speeds that were unsafe for the current conditions.
—Ariane Lange, Sacbee.com, 14 Aug. 2025
The Ed Gein Story jumps around in time, in part to make connections to the other adaptations and in part because the biographical chronology is so mangled that any distraction is welcome.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for mangle
Anna Kaufman, USA Today, 15 Sep. 2025
And, to mangle an old saying, in the land of non-duplexing and manual-duplexing ADFs, the reversing ADF is king.
—PC Magazine, 28 Aug. 2025
Fatal crashes with pedestrians ‘mangle their bodies’ In 2023, over 1,300 people died in California in crashes that were determined to involve speeds over the speed limit or speeds that were unsafe for the current conditions.
—Ariane Lange, Sacbee.com, 14 Aug. 2025
The Ed Gein Story jumps around in time, in part to make connections to the other adaptations and in part because the biographical chronology is so mangled that any distraction is welcome.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for mangle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mangle
Verb
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Missouri couldn’t win on third down The Zollers fumble on third-and-10 summed up this area.—
Maddie Hartley,
Kansas City Star,
9 Nov. 2025
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While trying to stop the clock with only seconds remaining, Eastern Washington quarterback Jake Schakel fumbled the ball on a spike attempt with his team at the Montana 5-yard line.—
Alex Valdes,
New York Times,
9 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Straight line winds can blow down trees, power lines, and damage mobile homes and other buildings.—
NC Weather Bot,
Charlotte Observer,
10 Nov. 2025
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The Buffalo Bills were left stunned in Miami on Sunday afternoon as the Dolphins blew them out 30-13 in a crucial AFC East rivalry game.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
9 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Soon, Wegovy and Zepbound will be sold on a new website—dubbed TrumpRx—for only about $250 a month, a fraction of their current retail price of more than $1,000.—
Nicholas Florko,
The Atlantic,
7 Nov. 2025
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The observatory is conducting a ten-year-long survey of the southern sky, dubbed the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which has as one of its principal goals improving our understanding of the nature of both dark energy and dark matter.—
Ian Randall,
MSNBC Newsweek,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.—
Don Sweeney,
Sacbee.com,
11 Nov. 2025
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So, no, women didn’t ruin the workplace.—
Emma Hinchliffe,
Fortune,
11 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Joe Biden’s seemed to end in August, 2021, when he was perceived as having botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan.—
Jon Allsop,
New Yorker,
11 Nov. 2025
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The team had botched an end-of-half sequence with McCarthy throwing the ball away for an incompletion, rather than taking the sack to run the clock.—
Alec Lewis,
New York Times,
10 Nov. 2025
Verb
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To completely butcher a Britney Spears song, our Yautja protagonist, Dek (played by newcomer Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), is not a boy, not yet a trophy hunter.—
Sergio Pereira,
Space.com,
4 Nov. 2025
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At the time that the cut was identified, researchers proposed that the mark proved that First Peoples butchered ancient megafauna.—
Mindy Weisberger,
CNN Money,
27 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The Chiefs bungled it in more ways than one, more than that fourth-down call, even if the most glaring is the decision to settle for three.—
Sam McDowell
November 4,
Kansas City Star,
4 Nov. 2025
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Gentleman thief Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven) circles the prize while Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) bungles the pursuit with sublime obliviousness.—
Lilah Ramzi,
Vogue,
25 Oct. 2025
Verb
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So, automation can be used to destroy labor or workers’ power, but it can also be used in the opposite direction.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Nov. 2025
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Homes, businesses and synagogues were destroyed.—
Arizona Republic,
AZCentral.com,
9 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Mangle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mangle. Accessed 17 Dec. 2025.
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