Definition of "ensnarl" [en•snarl]

• To entangle in or as if in a snarl: "The Senate has contrived to ensnarl several major proposals in two legislative tangles” ( New York Times). (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "How this peripheral issue came to ensnarl the health-care debate offers a case study in the theory and practice of interest-group politics."
• "Speaking of water, "The River Drains Through It" is veteran journalist Tom Kenworthy's look at how more than a half million acre feet of water is yearly diverted from river basins on Colorado's western slope to the other side of the Rocky Mountains, but how environmental concerns now ensnarl plans to build similar diversions to satisfy the demands of growth in the West."
• "Capitalising on its eerie claustrophic domestic ambiance early on this is a brooding creeper that has a powerful ability to ensnarl the audience into its relentless spell."