enmesh

enmesh in (something)

1. Literally, to tangle someone or something in something. You have so many knots that the brush keeps getting enmeshed in your hair.
2. To involve or trap oneself or someone in something, such as an issue, problem, or scandal. A noun or pronoun can be used between "enmesh" and "in." The best politicians choose their battles wisely: if one becomes too enmeshed in petty debates, one never gets anything done. Our father's lack of a will has enmeshed my brothers and me in many lawsuits over his estate.
See also: enmesh
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

enmesh someone or something in something

 
1. . Lit. to entangle someone or a group in something. Don't enmesh yourself in these ropes and chains. I didn't mean to enmesh you in this net. I should have kept it out of the way. Jane enmeshed herself in the net that had been set out to dry.
2. Fig. to get someone or a group involved in some problem. They enmeshed us in their problems even though we tried to avoid it. We enmeshed the entire committee in the lawsuit. Why do I always enmesh myself in someone else's business?
See also: enmesh
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • (someone or something) promises well
  • a slew of (something)
  • a/the feel of (something)
  • (I) wouldn't (do something) if I were you
  • (have) got something going (with someone)
  • a straw will show which way the wind blows
  • accompanied by
  • accompanied by (someone or something)
  • accompany
  • a crack at (someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
As mentioned before, data supported a six-factor structure of the instrument, three scales for Cohesion (Enmeshed, Balanced Cohesion, Disengaged) and three for Flexibility (Chaotic, Balanced Flexibility, Rigid).
Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale IV
Enmeshed families, by contrast, may be emotionally involved and display modest amounts of warmth, but they struggle with high levels of hostility, destructive meddling, and a limited sense of the family as a team.
Unhealthy family relationships lead to behavior problems in kids
Of all the politicians who should know the dangers of rules, regulations and respectable, powerful men it is Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, whose estranged husband David Mills remains deeply enmeshed in allegations of corruption involving former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.
JOWELL'S FINGER ON TRIGGER
Describing himself as "something of a geek," Kelso says it's clear that technology cooperation will be essential to overcoming those staffing, cost-inflation, and reimbursement crises in which long-term care is perpetually enmeshed.
A journey to RHIO: regional health information organizations are starting to gear providers up for electronic health records--and nursing homes are invited
Conservatives, enmeshed in their current push for so-called consumer-driven medicine, would have you believe that patients are to blame--they demand the surgeries, excited as all get-out to spend a couple weeks on a luxurious hospital cot.
Flat lines and bottom lines: think money drives medicine? You don't know the half of it
Kansas has been enmeshed in a struggle over teaching evolution since 1998, when candidates who favored teaching creationism won a majority on the Board of Education.
Kansas voters spurn creationist candidates in primary election
But Moriarty sets the enmeshed 'assignments' in such a way that they seem a large puzzle for the reader, who must be patient to see how the pieces eventually fit together.
Moriarty, Jaclyn. The year of secret assignments
Once the hundreds of formerly sovereign nations of the world are politically enmeshed in various regional entities--the European Union, a North American Union, a Middle East Union, etc.--it would be relatively easy for our internationalist political elites to incorporate these various regional governments into a world government under the United Nations.
Congress approves U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement
Personal writings reveal that 'problem' girls were often aware of the workings of power in which they were enmeshed. Case files, letters and autobiographies also reveal that girls and their families were not always passive subjects of the child welfare system.
Gender, Justice and Welfare: Bad Girls in Britain, 1900-1950
What seems evident is that in much anti-Muslim rhetoric, criticism of the religion is enmeshed with cultural and ethnic hostility that extends to largely secularized immigrants from traditionally Muslim countries.
The Jihad against muslims: when does criticism of Islam devolve into bigotry?
The extension will overtake two key elections ( a May 2007 French presidential vote and Dutch parliament ballot the next month ( ensuring the charter is not enmeshed in the politics of the two nations that trashed it.
EU on retreat for year
As a boy, Dwight Enhart found himself enmeshed in the fogs of an ordinary teenage boyhood in 1946 as a young man who had development into a shy, yet respected leader in his high school, The Fading Of The Scars is an engaging tale of the young discovery of God through friendships and social barriers that eventually break through as a message of enlightenment.
The Fading Of The Scars
The whole issue of civil liberties and data is so enmeshed."
New York City and Montclair, N.J.: me and my data shadow
Her quest is appropriate and plausible, because religion embraces ritual and symbol; it is enmeshed with images that tell more compellingly than historical fact or dogma the significance of the mystery of our existence (p.
Image and Spirit: Finding Meaning in Visual Art
Following the suicide of his favorite client, Dodds becomes enmeshed in the dead man's life, not only writing about it but also befriending the man's Down syndrome-affected sister, June.
Thief of stories