ppl. a. [f. SNARL v.1]

1

  † 1.  Ensnared, entrapped. Obs.

2

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 461/2. Snaryd, or snarlyd,… illaqueatus.

3

1648.  J. Beaumont, Psyche, XIV. lxvii. There A snarled Ram untwisted Isaac’s fate.

4

  2.  Entangled, twisted, complicated. Also fig.

5

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 439/1. Rufflyd, or snarlyd, innodatus.

6

1571.  Golding, Calvin on Ps. xxxvii. 25. Out of the matter itselfe there springeth a difficult and snarled question.

7

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. I. Eden, 723. Adam’s self … Could scant unwinde the knotty snarled clew.

8

1648.  J. Beaumont, Psyche, XVIII. cxliv. Through a thousand snarl’d Meanders, to A goodly Room he soon conducted her.

9

1667.  Decay Chr. Piety, vii. § 3. 259. Whose confus’d snarl’d consciences render it difficult, thus to pull out thred by thred.

10

1883.  W. C. Smith, N. Country Folk, 78. More tangled thrums … More snarled hasps.

11

1884.  [see SNARL sb.1 5].

12

  b.  Mentally confused.

13

1881.  G. W. Cable, Mme. Delphine, viii. 61. The returned rover was a trifle snarled in his top-hamper.

14