From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmangleman‧gle1 /ˈmæŋɡəl/ verb [transitive] 1 DAMAGEto damage or injure something badly by crushing or twisting it The trap closed round her leg, badly mangling her ankle.2 to spoil something such as a speech or piece of music, by saying or playing it badly The orchestra had mangled Bach’s music. —mangled adjective [only before noun] the mangled remains of the aircraft→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
mangle• Those of an unkind disposition might argue that mangling a non-first-class attack is not an especially big deal.• A mangled bicycle lay by the railroad tracks.• As far as anybody knew, he'd mangled himself while helping a friend with some car repairs.• He had mangled his hand in machinery at the potato mill.• People joke about Branston's ability to mangle the English language.• The impact had mangled the plane but not caused a fire.manglemangle2 noun [countable] DHCa machine used in former times to remove water from washed clothes by pressing them between two rollersExamples from the Corpus
mangle• The yard in front of the cottage was littered with discarded buckets, an old bath, a mangle and a pile of driftwood.• On one occasion, the owner of the house got both hands caught in a mangle.• The extra power in his mechanized hands had acted like a mangle.• I still have the big iron mangle she used to wring out the clothes.• Note the rollers of the mangle carved on either side of the window frame.• He pushed the harmonium into the place where the mangle had stood, then sat down to sup his mug of tea.Origin mangle1 (1300-1400) Anglo-French mangler, from Old French maynier; → MAIM mangle2 (1600-1700) Middle Dutch mangel, from Middle High German mange “mangle, military weapon for throwing rocks” 