(slang) tangled (oneself) up; confused (oneself). The expression is taken from the US
West where a tangled-up
man in a confused
condition was likened to a person, horse or cow who had
run into a
telegraph pole and gotten wrapped around it. It infers the
situation or person
needs to be untangled and straightened out. Why, I would have wrapped myself around four
telegraph poles if I'd ever
tried to think of all that at the same
time.
-A Review of Study (22 Sept. 64)