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disarray

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English disareyen (“to disarray”), from Middle French desarroyer, from Old French desareer, from des- (“dis-”) + areer (“to array”).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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disarray (third-person singular simple present disarrays, present participle disarraying, simple past and past participle disarrayed)

  1. (transitive) To throw into disorder; to break the array of.
    • 1726, Elijah Fenton, Odyssey:
      Who with fiery steeds / Oft disarray'd the foes in battle ranged.
  2. (transitive) To take off the dress of; to unrobe.

Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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disarray (countable and uncountable, plural disarrays)

  1. A lack of array or regular order; disorder; confusion.
    • 1992, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run with the Wolves, Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, page 9:
      So, in order to apply a good medicine to the hurt parts of the wildish psyche, in order to aright relationship to the archetype of the Wild Woman, one has to name the disarrays of the psyche accurately.
    • 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC‎[1]:
      Tottenham pushed forward in an attempt to complete the recovery - but only succeeded in leaving themselves wide open to Chelsea's attacks and Redknapp's side ended in total disarray.
    • 2024 October 30, Paul Bigland, “The heat is on... and will the railway fray”, in RAIL, number 1021, page 46:
      On leaving the train at Piccadilly, everything goes 'Pete Tong'. Services are in complete disarray, as a tree has come down onto the line at Gatley.
  2. Confused attire; undress; dishabille.

Synonyms

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Translations

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