pretzel

noun

1. A toasted bread or cracker usually in the shape of a loose knot.

   “When I was young, the best Philadelphia could do in the way of combining music and eating—or principally drinking—was at the Mäennerchor Garden at Ninth and Green, where a pretzel might be had with a glass of beer, or a sherry cobbler”

   “Outside, the little birds on the telegraph wires looked in at the moving picture and smiled at one another. Some even wept. Then they flew down into the street and simply raved over a stale pretzel, ten days dead.”

2. (broadly, figuratively)Anything that is knotted, twisted, or tangled.

   “he drew himself up into a regular pretzel of a boy”

verb

1. (Canada, US, informal, transitive)To bend, twist, or contort.

   “They discovered a snake pretzelled into knots.”