1. trans. To take out of a ravelled, tangled, or intertwined condition; to disentangle; also, to pull down, to undo (a woven fabric). Freq. in fig. context: see quots. under (a).
(a) 1603 DEKKER Wonderfull Yeare Wks. (Grosart) I. 131 She..vnraueld the bottome of her frailetie at length. 1639 FULLER Holy War IV. i. 166 Frederick..unravelled the fair web of John Brens victory, even to the very hemme thereof. 1709 SWIFT Tritical Ess. Wks. 1755 II. I. 144 We shall be forced to..unravel in the night what we spun in the day. 1792 BURKE Corr. (1844) IV. 3 The web has been too long weaving to be unravelled in an instant. 1856 KINGSLEY in N. Brit. Rev. XXVI. 78 To unravel patiently the tangled web of good and evil. 1878 BROWNING La Saisiaz 81, I, link by link, unravelled any tangle of the chain.