Word.ws English Dictionary

discomposing

discomposing is the present participle and gerund of discompose.

Meaning of discompose

Verb

discompose (third-person singular simple present discomposes, present participle discomposing, simple past and past participle discomposed)

  1. (transitive) To destroy the composure of; to disturb or agitate.
    • I am glad I have done being in love with him. I should not like a man who is so soon discomposed by a hot morning.1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume III, chapter 6
  2. (transitive) To disarrange, or throw into a state of disorder.
    • If e'er with airy horns I planted heads,
      Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds,
      Or caus'd suspicion when no soul was rude,1712-17, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (London: Chiswick Press. 1925), canto IV

Adjective

discomposing (comparative more discomposing, superlative most discomposing)

  1. Unsettling; tending to discompose
    • […] a death which overtook one galloping frantically over a desert was wholly irregular and discomposing.1898, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Tragedy of The Korosko
    • By that time the fellow had managed to tug and jerk his hat clear of his head, and advanced with slight bows at Ruthvel, who told me the sight was so discomposing that for some time he listened, quite unable to make out what that apparition wanted.1900, Joseph Conrad, chapter 5, in Lord Jim

Forms of discomposing

comparativemore discomposing
superlativemost discomposing

Words formed from discomposing

Questions about discomposing

What does discomposing mean?
Discomposing means unsettling; tending to discompose.
What is discomposing the present participle and gerund of?
Discomposing is the present participle and gerund of discompose.
What part of speech is discomposing?
Discomposing is an adjective.

Words near discomposing in the dictionary

  1. discompose
  2. discomposed
  3. discomposedly
  4. discomposedness
  5. discomposes
  6. discomposing
  7. discomposingly
  8. discomposition
  9. discomposure
  10. discomposures
  11. discomprehend

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: discomposing (page history and authors); discompose (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “discomposing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/discomposing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.