discompose

present singular third person discomposes · participle present discomposing · participle past discomposed · past discomposed

1. transitiveTo destroy the composure of; to disturb or agitate.

   You will not be discomposed by the Lord Chancellor, I dare say?

   1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   I am glad I have done being in love with him. I should not like a man who is so soon discomposed by a hot morning.

   1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume III, chapter 6

   That thought appeared to discompose her greatly, though Jasper made light of it by rapidly back-scratching with his hind legs and giving a short stern bark, just to assure her that strangers would be rushed off the property on sight.

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 127

   Synonyms: perturb, unsettle, agitate, freak, sting, bother, bring down, unstring

2. transitiveTo disarrange, or throw into a state of disorder.

   If e'er with airy horns I planted heads, Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds, Or caus'd suspicion when no soul was rude,

   1712-17, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (London: Chiswick Press. 1925), canto IV

   Synonyms: betumble, derange, displace, disrange, ruffle up, unsettle