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embroil

/ɛmˈbrɔɪl/
IPA guide

Other forms: embroiled; embroiling; embroils

To embroil is to drag someone into a mess. If you're embroiled, you're in deep. Being embroiled is far worse, far messier, and generally far more long-term, than simply being "involved" with something. Nothing good can come of being embroiled.

Embroil can refer to any sort of situation — romantic entanglements, political events, scandals — but it's probably most commonly used in reference to lawsuits. The classic lawsuit that embroiled its participants was the fictional case of Jarndyce. v. Jarndyce, in Dickens's novel Bleak House — which went on for so many generations that all the characters' money was eaten up entirely by lawyers' fees. Let us repeat: nothing good comes of getting embroiled.

Definitions of embroil
  1. verb
    force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action
    synonyms: drag, drag in, sweep, sweep up, tangle
    see moresee less
    type of:
    involve
    engage as a participant
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