enmeshed
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Deeply involved in a difficult or complicated situation: Describes being entangled or caught up in circumstances that are hard to escape from, often implying a sense of being trapped or ensnared.
- Entwined or entangled as if in a net or web: Suggests a state of complex, often restrictive, involvement where different elements are interwoven.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- The company became enmeshed in a lengthy legal dispute. (The company became deeply and complicatedly involved in a legal dispute.)
- She felt enmeshed in family obligations and couldn't pursue her own dreams. (She felt trapped and entangled by her family duties.)
- The two issues are so enmeshed that it's hard to solve one without addressing the other. (The issues are so intricately intertwined.)
Advanced Usage
- "to become enmeshed in": to become deeply and often problematically involved in a situation.
- The politician became enmeshed in a scandal that ended his career.
- "to be enmeshed with": to be intricately connected or entangled with something else.
- His personal life is enmeshed with his professional ambitions, making balance difficult.
Variants and Related Words
- Enmesh (verb): To catch or entangle in or as if in a mesh.
- The new regulations threaten to enmesh small businesses in red tape.
- Enmeshing (noun/gerund): The action of entangling.
- The enmeshing of different departments led to communication chaos.
Synonyms
- Entangled: Twisted together or caught in a tangle.
- Ensnarled: Caught in or as if in a snare.
- Mired: Stuck in a difficult situation, like in mud.
- Involved: Connected or concerned with something, often deeply.
Related Phrases
- Caught in a web: Trapped in a complex, ensnaring situation. (This is an idiom, not a phrasal verb with "enmeshed").
- Tangled up in: Involved in a confusing or complicated situation.
Adjective
- caught as if in a mesh
- enmeshed in financial difficulties