rough-and-tumble vs tangle

rough-and-tumble

noun
  • Rough activity; fighting or brawling; a fight. 

  • An environment of rough activity 

  • A person who characteristically engages in such activity 

adj
  • active, vigorous and rough, with the possibility of harm 

  • highly competitive 

verb
  • Engage in rough-and-tumble activity 

tangle

noun
  • An argument, conflict, dispute, or fight. 

  • Any large type of seaweed, especially a species of Laminaria. 

  • A complicated or confused state or condition. 

  • A tangled twisted mass. 

  • A paired helical fragment of tau protein found in a nerve cell and associated with Alzheimer's disease. 

  • Any long hanging thing, even a lanky person. 

  • A region of the projection of a knot such that the knot crosses its perimeter exactly four times. 

  • An instrument consisting essentially of an iron bar to which are attached swabs, or bundles of frayed rope, or other similar substances, used to capture starfishes, sea urchins, and other similar creatures living at the bottom of the sea. 

  • A form of art which consists of sections filled with repetitive patterns. 

verb
  • To mix together or intertwine. 

  • To enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight. 

  • To catch and hold. 

  • To become mixed together or intertwined. 

How often have the words rough-and-tumble and tangle occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )