disheveled
disheveled is the alternative form of dishevelled.
disheveled is the simple past and past participle of dishevel.
Meaning of dishevelled
Adjective
dishevelled (comparative more dishevelled, superlative most dishevelled)
- Of a person, with the hair uncombed.
- Disorderly or untidy in appearance.
- The men resided in a huge bunk house, which consisted of one room only, with a shack utside where the cooking was done. In the large room were a dozen bunks ; half of them in a very dishevelled state, […]1913, Robert Barr, chapter 6, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad
Meaning of dishevel
Verb
dishevel (third-person singular simple present dishevels, present participle (US) disheveling or (UK) dishevelling, simple past and past participle (US) disheveled or (UK) dishevelled)
- To throw into disorder; upheave.
- The wind disheveled the papers on the desk.
- To disarrange or loosen (hair, clothing, etc.).
- With garments rent, and haire discheueled, / Wringing her hands, and making piteous mone;1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 12
- To spread out in disorder.
Forms of disheveled
| comparative | more disheveled |
|---|---|
| superlative | most disheveled |
Words formed from disheveled
Questions about disheveled
- What is disheveled the alternative form of?
- Disheveled is the alternative form of dishevelled.
Words near disheveled in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: disheveled (page history and authors); dishevelled (page history and authors); dishevel (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: “disheveled.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/disheveled. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.