disorient

[dis-awr-ee-ent, -ohr-]

verb (used with object)

1. to cause to lose one's way.

   The strange streets disoriented him.

2. to confuse by removing or obscuring something that has guided a person, group, or culture, as customs, moral standards, etc..

   Society has been disoriented by changing values.

3. Psychiatry.,  to cause to lose perception of time, place, or one's personal identity.

Word History and Origins

Origin of disorient¹

1645–55; < French désorienter, equivalent to dés- dis- ¹ + orienter to orient

Example Sentences

Frank, full of character and occasionally disorienting, this collection of his work is a joyful depiction of a uniquely American quirk.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

I jump toward the fence as well, trying to clear it in one bound—but only succeed in flying into it with a painful, disorienting WHAM!

Read more on Literature

Understand that she was more than a little disoriented, for she had taken quite a tumble.

Read more on Literature

“Dissociative” is a decent descriptor for Isella’s music, too — disorienting, unnerving, drawing out emotions you might not understand.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

To an outsider, this torrent of picayune detail about the financial markets would have been disorienting.

Read more on Literature

Related Words

• amaze 
• astonish 
• baffle 
• befuddle 
• bemuse 
• complicate 
• confound 
• daze 
• demoralize 
• disconcert 
• distract 
• embarrass 
• fluster 
• frustrate 
• involve 
• misinform 
• mislead 
• mortify 
• muddle 
• mystify