dishevel

present singular third person dishevels · US participle present disheveling · UK participle present dishevelling · US participle past disheveled · US past disheveled · UK participle past dishevelled · UK past dishevelled

1. transitiveTo throw into disorder; upheave.

   The wind disheveled the papers on the desk.

2. transitiveTo disarrange or loosen (hair, clothing, etc.).

   Like the fair flower dishevell'd in the wind.

   1785, William Cowper, The Garden

   2 more examples

   With garments rent, and haire discheueled, / Wringing her hands, and making piteous mone;

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 12

   [...] 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—[...].

   1964 April, G. Freeman Allen, “The BRB shows traders the Liner train prototypes”, in Modern Railways, page 262

   Synonyms: rumple, muss

3. intransitiveTo spread out in disorder.