a barrier or obstruction of barbed wire used in warfare
wire entanglement in American English
noun
a barbed-wire obstacle, usually mounted on posts and zigzagged back and forth along a front, designed to channel, delay, or halt an advance by enemy foot soldiers
Word origin
[1875–80]This word is first recorded in the period 1875–80. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: Diaspora, authoritarian, fan-tan, graph, slime mold
Examples of 'wire entanglement' in a sentence
wire entanglement
Here and there is a vestige of a parapet, but of barbed wire entanglement not a trace.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Barbed wire entanglements, the fruits of months of perfecting, had to be silently got through.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Trench warfare created a hellish world of its own - at worst a wilderness of shattered trees, barbed wire entanglements and waterlogged craters.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
Many fell as they clustered at the narrow gaps in their own wire entanglements before even reaching no man's land.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Entrapped by thick wire entanglements, pinned down and finally strafed by their own aircraft, he and his men were taken prisoners of war.