1
: severely injured or damaged by cutting, tearing, or crushing
a mangled foot
A special bed—a box lined with cottonwool—was made for the mangled pigeon while the Wilsons nursed it …—
Iain Macdonald
Iain Macdonald… mangled warplanes lie strewn across the desert floor, their wings and tails torn off, their fuselages punctured.—Richard Wolkomir
Richard Wolkomir2
: spoiled or made incoherent
a mangled message
mangled punctuation/syntax
This is a draft manuscript waiting for an editor to impose coherence and to smooth over mangled grammar, malapropisms and political oversimplifications.—Emily MacFarquhar
Emily MacFarquharExamples of mangled in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The New York Times, citing the Placer Times, reported that mangled bodies could be seen on both sides of the river.
—Don Sweeney, Sacbee.com, 27 Jan. 2026
The graphic shots of Rushdie’s wounds are startling, none more so than his mangled right eye where the knife was plunged in.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 25 Jan. 2026
In del Toro's telling, the Creature is truly the story's mangled, beating heart.
—Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Jan. 2026
Kimmel showed a photo of the mangled cake, which Short had tried to repair with his fork.
—Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 22 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for mangled
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Don Sweeney, Sacbee.com, 27 Jan. 2026
The graphic shots of Rushdie’s wounds are startling, none more so than his mangled right eye where the knife was plunged in.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 25 Jan. 2026
In del Toro's telling, the Creature is truly the story's mangled, beating heart.
—Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Jan. 2026
Kimmel showed a photo of the mangled cake, which Short had tried to repair with his fork.
—Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 22 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for mangled
Cite this Entry
“Mangled.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mangled. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
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