dishevel
English edit
Etymology edit
From Old French descheveler (modern French écheveler).
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
dishevel (third-person singular simple present dishevels, present participle disheveling or dishevelling, simple past and past participle disheveled or dishevelled)
- (transitive) To throw into disorder; upheave.
- (transitive) To disarrange or loosen (hair, clothing, etc.).
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 12:
- With garments rent, and haire discheueled, / Wringing her hands, and making piteous mone;
- 1785, William Cowper, The Garden:
- Like the fair flower dishevell'd in the wind.
- 1964 April, G. Freeman Allen, “The BRB shows traders the Liner train prototypes”, in Modern Railways, page 262:
- [...] the natural finish seems much less likely to show up the stains of travel which might soon dishevel the golden ochre or dark blue—especially the latter—[...].
- (intransitive) To spread out in disorder.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
throw into disorder
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disarrange or loosen
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References edit
- “dishevel”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.