discombobulate

present singular third person discombobulates · participle present discombobulating · participle past discombobulated · past discombobulated · alternative discomboberate · alternative discombulate · alternative discombobricate · alternative discombooberate

1. humoroustransitiveTo throw into a state of confusion; to befuddle or perplex.

   The notes zigzag in his pieces and discombobulate the ear, just as in 12-tone works.

   1999 December 13, Anthony Tommasini, “MUSIC REVIEW; Plenty Of Zigzags, But Hold The Angst”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page E3

   3 more examples

   Can't you and I pretend to quarrel? A personal assault by you on me will wake these people up and discombobulate Goldsmith. Say the word—only don't hit too hard.

   1895, John Kendrick Bangs, “Story-tellers' Night”, in A House-Boat on the Styx, New York: Harper & Brothers, published 1901, page 132

   "I persuaded the Whisperer that I was Curtain, then gave it orders that more or less baffled it out of operation. But had Constance not already thoroughly discombobulated it, and had I not possessed a brain so very much like my twin's, we might have never had succeeded."

   2007, Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society, page 477

   First, distract target. Then block his blind jab. Counter with cross to left cheek. Discombobulate. Dazed, he'll attempt wild haymaker. Employ elbow block.

   2009 December 25, Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham, Simon Kinberg, 17:18 from the start, in Sherlock Holmes (film), spoken by Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.)

   Antonyms: combobulate, recombobulate