From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishentanglementen‧tan‧gle‧ment /ɪnˈtæŋɡəlmənt/ noun 1 RELATIONSHIP[countable] a difficult situation or relationship that is hard to escape from She had always been afraid of any emotional entanglements.2 [uncountable] when something becomes entangled in something3 [countable often plural]PMD a fence made of barbed wire that prevents enemy soldiers from getting too close
Examples from the Corpus
entanglement• Because she herself had subsequently been extremely wary of any emotional entanglements.• Irrational perhaps, but they approach their misery from entirely different directions and ethnic entanglements.• The only intrusion is the one I let in myself when I enlisted Shelly, and with Shelly all her grubby entanglements.• During most of Alexander's reign, the regime had carefully avoided all but minor military entanglements.• A good hour later, following numerous entanglements of rope in a tree, we arrived safely back to earth.• Furthermore, school supervision of the activities is precisely the kind of entanglement that is impermissible under constitutional precedents.• Mr Anderson said there was a risk of entanglement during operation and the company was required by law to provide covers.• political entanglements• The accumulation of obligations made it nearly impossible for the children to pry loose from the entanglement. 