Other Word Forms
- undisheveled adjective
Etymology
Origin of disheveled
1375–1425; late Middle English discheveled < Old French deschevele, past participle of descheveler to dishevel the hair, equivalent to des- dis- 1 + -cheveler, derivative of chevel a hair < Latin capillus
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.
The disheveled 58-year-old, who went by Tony, was a cousin of the recently deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026
And while it didn’t exactly fly off the shelves, its concurrence with the height of the Seattle grunge music scene made the disheveled aesthetic a street-style must-have.
From Salon • Mar. 27, 2026
In a story in “Ladies’ Lunch,” an old woman, disheveled after an outing, looks in a mirror and sees “what Diane Arbus might have seen. She gazed, appalled, and being appalled pricked her interest.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026
A disheveled man sick of endless waiting launched into an eloquent tirade ending with Samuel Beckett -- "You know what happened in the story of Godot? He never came."
From Barron's • Feb. 16, 2026
They’d stopped in front of a storefront that Sierra could have sworn had been empty and disheveled as recently as last week.
From "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older
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.
