[ adj ] in disarray; extremely disorderly <adj.all> her clothing was disheveledpowder-smeared and frowzled a rumpled unmade bed a bed with tousled sheets his brown hair was tousled, thick, and curly
Dishevel \Di*shev"el\ (d[i^]*sh[e^]v"'l or -[e^]l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Disheveled}or {Dishevelled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Disheveling} or {Dishevelling}.] [OF. descheveler, F. d['e]cheveler, LL. discapillare; dis- + L. capillus the hair of the head. See {Capillary}.] 1. To suffer (the hair) to hang loosely or disorderly; to spread or throw (the hair) in disorder; -- used chiefly in the passive participle.
With garments rent and hair disheveled, Wringing her hands and making piteous moan. --Spenser.
2. To spread loosely or disorderly.
Like the fair flower disheveled in the wind. --Cowper.
disheveled \di*shev"eled\, dishevelled \di*shev"elled\, a. 1. Hanging in loose disorder; disarranged; in disarray; not made neat; -- used especially of hair or clothing; as, disheveled hair.
2. Having the hair in loose disorder.
The dancing maidens are disheveled M[ae]nads. --J. A. Symonds.
Defecting customers point to a number of drawbacks with general merchandise discounters: Small selections in any one category, disheveled displays, hard-to-find salespeople, long checkout lines.
It's her house, but Jeanette Noble wants everyone to know the disheveled, "tacky" dwelling cared for by comic Roseanne Barr in her hit show "Roseanne" does not always look that way.
Arthur L. Liman, a gangly disheveled man with a Noo Yawk accent, probably is best known for picking apart Oliver North on national television as captive nation watched.
The appealingly disheveled presence of star John Ritter ("Three's Company"), however, may make the difference.
Judy's a disheveled escape artist, hazel-eyed, round-faced and rambunctious.
Selfless, brave and determined, the stooped, disheveled dean of Soviet dissent lived to see many of his dreams come true.
His hair was disheveled.
"She was disheveled, beat up, bloody, half-dressed.
A sobbing, disheveled Bakker was later brought to the courthouse, then taken away in handcuffs 90 minutes later to the mental facility.
His father was little more a testing device for a specialized computer chip designed by Feng Hsiung Hsu, a disheveled, Taiwan-born computer-science graduate student.
Bertie, somewhat the worse for drink at break of day, stumbles into his stylish, yet disheveled bachelor flat and collapses onto his bed.
Mr. Vassiliev, sad and disheveled, looks back on his career with bitterness.
Compared with this masterful portrait, I found her performance Saturday vocally baffling, if hardly the disheveled, coarse piece of work described by others attending earlier performances.