dishevel

From Old French descheveler (modern French écheveler).

• IPA^(key): /dɪ(s)ˈʃɛvl̩/

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• Rhymes: -ɛvəl

dishevel (third-person singular simple present dishevels, present participle disheveling or dishevelling, simple past and past participle disheveled or dishevelled)

1. (transitive) To throw into disorder; upheave.
2. (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—[...].

3. (intransitive) To spread out in disorder.

• dishevelment

• “dishevel”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• he-devils, she-devil