mangle

What it means

1. transitiveTo change, mutilate, or disfigure by cutting, tearing, rearranging, etc.

   c. 1703-20, Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Very Young Lady on Her Marriage when they are disposed to mangle a play or a novel

   1 more example

   mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail

   1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

2. transitivecomputingTo modify (an identifier from source code) so as to produce a unique identifier for internal use by the compiler, etc.

In a sentence

mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail

1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

Where it comes from

1. Old English*mancian
2. Middle English*mankelen
3. Old Frenchmangonner“to cut to pieces”
4. Middle Englishmangelen
5. Englishmangle

From Middle English mangelen, manglen, from Anglo-Norman mangler, mahangler, frequentative of either Old French mangonner (“to cut to pieces”) or mahaigner (“to mutilate”), of Germanic origin, for which see mayhem. Alternate etymology derives mangle from Middle English *mankelen, a frequentative form of manken (“to mutilate”), from Old English *mancian, bemancian (“to maim”). More at mank.