derange
Americanverb (used with object)
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to throw into disorder; disarrange.
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to disturb the condition, action, or function of.
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to make insane.
verb
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to disturb the order or arrangement of; throw into disorder; disarrange
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to disturb the action or operation of
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to make insane; drive mad
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of derange
1770–80; < French déranger, Old French desrengier, equivalent to des- dis- 1 + rengier; see range
Explanation
To derange someone is to make her go crazy or completely confuse her. Going without sleep for an entire week can derange a person. It's more common to see the adjective deranged — or insane — than the verb derange, but you can use it to describe what happens when someone or something drives a person batty. Too many head injuries can derange a football player's short term memory, and a teasing cat just out of reach might derange a tied-up dog in a yard. The Old French root of derange is desrengier, "throw into disorder," which combines des, "do the opposite of" and rengier, "put into line."
Vocabulary lists containing derange
The Bluest Eye
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Stories of Ourselves
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A Game of Thrones
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After all, the original Surrealist movement, with its urge to systematically derange the senses, occurred in the wake of the First World War and its horrors.
From New York Times • Feb. 16, 2022
Tolentino explores these overheated environments and their incentives, and how they derange our sense of ourselves and our values.
From Washington Post • Aug. 9, 2019
And yet neighbors living in democracies can derange themselves, too.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 31, 2016
Twin Peaks didn’t break the rules of dramatic television so much as subtly derange them.
From Slate • Nov. 12, 2015
The quality of her clothes threatened to derange Frieda and me.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
