Ask LJ

[learnedax]

Is there an expression that describes trying to take one thing and inadvertently dragging along many things attached to or entangled with that thing? I feel like there ought to be some common word or phrase for it, but nothing springs to mind.

Comments

[hungrytiger]

Katamaring?

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Katamaring is a handy idea, but I think of that as more about amassing a growing collection of things.

I'm thinking of something like a jumble of cables, where their entanglement makes it difficult to pull out just one.

[hungrytiger]

Sort of the unraveling the Christmas lights problem.... and given that we get the less used word ravel

ravel
-els -eling, -eled
1. to tangle (threads, fibres, etc.) or (of threads, fibres, etc.) to become entangled
2. to tease or draw out (the fibers of a fabric or garment) or (of a garment or fabric) to fray out in loose ends; unravel
3. (tr; usually foll by out) to disentangle or resolve to ravel out a complicated story
4. to break up (a road surface) in patches or (of a road surface) to begin to break up; fret; scab
5. Archaic to make or become confused or complicated
n
a tangle or complication

And the ancillary word raveling, which refers to a thread or fiber that has become separated from a woven material.

On a related note:
I'm reminded of this item from ThinkGeek...
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/8b4e/

[umbran.livejournal.com]

The Paperclip Effect.

[teddywookie.livejournal.com]

Like reaching into the nuts and bolts jar with an electromagnet hand.

[laurion]

Looks like you're looking for a passive verb. The active is often used metaphorically, and is 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater'. I suppose it may depend on if we are referring to the entangled items directly (in which case, drag does seem an appropriate verb), or indirectly. Accretion refers to inadvertently dragging things, but not through entanglement. Kleptomania can refer to inadvertently taking things, but not to entangled things. I think there is room here to modulate or invent a term. Maybe some variation of 'ensnaring'. Ensnagling, I think.

[jjaquinta.livejournal.com]

"Pulling the tread" is the idiom I've used. Mostly when I've gone into someone else's code to change just one thing, but because of their screwy dependencies, I have to make some other changes, which require other changes. Although I guess it originally meant when you saw a thread loose on your shirt, and pulled it to make it tidy. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it unraveled half the shirt...

[be-well-lowell.livejournal.com]

... and sometimes it just tightened the next knot in the tangle.

I was thinking this, as well. Although (like all the other suggestions) it may be more or less appropriate depending on the application.