Idiom idiom
pretzel up
Meaning
To make or become confused, perplexed, twisted or entangled.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“My thoughts always pretzel up when I try to learn new grammar.”
“The instructions for the new software were so poorly written that my brain started to pretzel up.”
“Faced with the complex legal arguments, the lawyer felt his logic begin to pretzel up under the pressure of the cross-examination.”
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Last updated August 10, 2026