Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To involve in argument, contention, or hostile actions.
- transitive verb To throw into confusion or disorder; entangle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To broil; burn.
- To mix up or entangle; intermix confusedly; involve.
- To involve in contention or trouble by discord; disturb; distract.
- noun Perplexity; confusion; embarrassment.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To throw into confusion or commotion by contention or discord; to entangle in a broil or quarrel; to make confused; to distract; to involve in difficulties by dissension or strife.
- transitive verb To implicate in confusion; to complicate; to jumble.
- noun See
embroilment .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To draw into a situation; to cause to be involved.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word embroil.
Examples
-
For him to do as the Republicans want, he would again embroil our country in a fight that is not ours.
-
The only way to really guarantee of giving the United States a bloody nose would be to kind of embroil it in a larger, regional war.
-
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told AP he will not let the abortion issue "embroil" the healthcare reform debate.
-
Early in the 17th century, English speakers began using "embroil," a direct adaptation of
-
Early in the 17th century, English speakers began using "embroil," a direct adaptation of
-
The false claims advanced by the Bush administration that Saddam was building up a serious WMD program and that his regime had given training in “poisons and deadly gases” to al-Qaeda associates in Iraq were the apogee of this hysteria, as they helped to embroil the United States in the disastrous Iraq War.
The Longest War Peter L. Bergen 2011
-
The false claims advanced by the Bush administration that Saddam was building up a serious WMD program and that his regime had given training in “poisons and deadly gases” to al-Qaeda associates in Iraq were the apogee of this hysteria, as they helped to embroil the United States in the disastrous Iraq War.
The Longest War Peter L. Bergen 2011
-
Critics of a no-fly zone say it is an act of war, and could embroil the United States in another conflict in the Arab world on the side of forces whose ultimate intentions are not yet clear.
-
Em - is a common prefix, found in words such as embark, embed, embody, emboss, embrace, and embroil.
-
Em - is a common prefix, found in words such as embark, embed, embody, emboss, embrace, and embroil.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.