DISHEVEL

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Irregular inflected forms: dishevelled , dishevelling

I. (verb)

Verb forms

Present simple: I / you / we / they dishevel ... he / she / it dishevels

Past simple: disheveled /dishevelled

Past participle: disheveled /dishevelled

-ing form: disheveling /dishevelling

Sense 1

Meaning:

Disarrange or rumple; dishevel

Example:

The strong wind tousled my hair

Synonyms:

dishevel; tangle; tousle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "dishevel" is one way to...):

disarrange (destroy the arrangement or order of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Credits

Context examples:

It was a pictorial sheet, and Jo examined the work of art nearest her, idly wondering what fortuitous concatenation of circumstances needed the melodramatic illustration of an Indian in full war costume, tumbling over a precipice with a wolf at his throat, while two infuriated young gentlemen, with unnaturally small feet and big eyes, were stabbing each other close by, and a disheveled female was flying away in the background with her mouth wide open.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

We went upstairs, through period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk and vivid with new flowers, through dressing rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms with sunken baths—intruding into one chamber where a dishevelled man in pajamas was doing liver exercises on the floor.