"tie oneself in knots" meaning in English

See tie oneself in knots in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tie oneself in knots.wav Forms: ties oneself in knots [present, singular, third-person], tying oneself in knots [participle, present], tied oneself in knots [participle, past], tied oneself in knots [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*|head=tie oneself in knots}} tie oneself in knots (third-person singular simple present ties oneself in knots, present participle tying oneself in knots, simple past and past participle tied oneself in knots)
  1. (idiomatic) To put oneself in a difficult situation. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: tie oneself up in knots Related terms: in knots, tied in knots, tie in knots
    Sense id: en-tie_oneself_in_knots-en-verb-Pl62-wSG Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with Polish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 67 33 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 76 24 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 74 26 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 86 14 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 69 31 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 69 31 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 61 39
  2. (idiomatic) To become anxious or upset; to fret. Tags: idiomatic Translations (to become anxious or upset; to fret): hermoilla (Finnish), se prendre la tête (French), se faire de la bile (French), se faire du mauvais sang (French), se ronger les sangs (French), se faire un sang d’encre (French), se faire des cheveux blancs (French), zaniepokoić się [perfective] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-tie_oneself_in_knots-en-verb-zIPPIF7O Disambiguation of 'to become anxious or upset; to fret': 1 99

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ties oneself in knots",
      "tags": [
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        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "tying oneself in knots",
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    {
      "form": "tied oneself in knots",
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      "form": "tied oneself in knots",
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        "head": "tie oneself in knots"
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      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "67 33",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "76 24",
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          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "74 26",
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        {
          "_dis": "86 14",
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          "_dis": "69 31",
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          "_dis": "69 31",
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          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "61 39",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 December 6, Shaun Walker, “Trump's European diplomats tied in knots over rise of populism”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "Across the border in the Netherlands, there was further controversy when the new US ambassador, Peter Hoekstra, tied himself in knots by claiming he had never spoken about Muslim no-go zones in Europe, an obsession for the far-right, when he had.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To put oneself in a difficult situation."
      ],
      "id": "en-tie_oneself_in_knots-en-verb-Pl62-wSG",
      "links": [
        [
          "put",
          "put"
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        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
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        [
          "situation",
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To put oneself in a difficult situation."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "word": "in knots"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "word": "tied in knots"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "word": "tie in knots"
        }
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          "_dis1": "82 18",
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      "tags": [
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2023 June 1, Stuart Heritage, “Acting, sexiness and late babies: why Pacino v De Niro is the daddy of all rivalries”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "The two greatest actors of their generation – the two greatest actors of most generations – [Al] Pacino and [Robert] De Niro will spend the rest of eternity being compared. People will tie themselves up in knots over who did the best work, who was the best in The Godfather Part II, who won their first scene together in Heat, who was the least bad in Righteous Kill.",
          "type": "quote"
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      "glosses": [
        "To become anxious or upset; to fret."
      ],
      "id": "en-tie_oneself_in_knots-en-verb-zIPPIF7O",
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          "anxious",
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          "fret",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To become anxious or upset; to fret."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
          "word": "hermoilla"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
          "word": "se prendre la tête"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
          "word": "se faire de la bile"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
          "word": "se faire du mauvais sang"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
          "word": "se ronger les sangs"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
          "word": "se faire un sang d’encre"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
          "word": "se faire des cheveux blancs"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "zaniepokoić się"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "word": "tie oneself in knots"
}
{
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    }
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      "word": "in knots"
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      "word": "tie in knots"
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          "ref": "2018 December 6, Shaun Walker, “Trump's European diplomats tied in knots over rise of populism”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "Across the border in the Netherlands, there was further controversy when the new US ambassador, Peter Hoekstra, tied himself in knots by claiming he had never spoken about Muslim no-go zones in Europe, an obsession for the far-right, when he had.",
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        "To put oneself in a difficult situation."
      ],
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To put oneself in a difficult situation."
      ],
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        "idiomatic"
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          "ref": "2023 June 1, Stuart Heritage, “Acting, sexiness and late babies: why Pacino v De Niro is the daddy of all rivalries”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "The two greatest actors of their generation – the two greatest actors of most generations – [Al] Pacino and [Robert] De Niro will spend the rest of eternity being compared. People will tie themselves up in knots over who did the best work, who was the best in The Godfather Part II, who won their first scene together in Heat, who was the least bad in Righteous Kill.",
          "type": "quote"
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        "To become anxious or upset; to fret."
      ],
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          "anxious"
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          "upset",
          "upset"
        ],
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          "fret",
          "fret"
        ]
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To become anxious or upset; to fret."
      ],
      "tags": [
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    }
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "tie oneself up in knots"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
      "word": "hermoilla"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
      "word": "se prendre la tête"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
      "word": "se faire de la bile"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
      "word": "se faire du mauvais sang"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
      "word": "se ronger les sangs"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
      "word": "se faire un sang d’encre"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
      "word": "se faire des cheveux blancs"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to become anxious or upset; to fret",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "zaniepokoić się"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tie oneself in knots"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.