TOUSLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tousle mean? 

• TOUSLE (verb)
  The verb TOUSLE has 1 sense:

1. disarrange or rumple; dishevel

  Familiarity information: TOUSLE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TOUSLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they tousle    ... he / she / it tousles   
Past simple: tousled   
Past participle: tousled   
-ing form: tousling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Disarrange or rumple; dishevel

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

dishevel; tangle; tousle

Context example:

The strong wind tousled my hair

Hypernyms (to "tousle" is one way to...):

disarrange (destroy the arrangement or order of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Then, as if reproaching himself for the longing that he could not repress, he went and kissed the two tousled heads upon the pillow, took down his seldom-used meerschaum, and opened his Plato.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

That, marching him constantly up and down by the collar (as if he had been taking too much laudanum), she, at those times, shook him, rumpled his hair, made light of his linen, stopped his ears as if she confounded them with her own, and otherwise tousled and maltreated him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Now I demand the satisfaction of a gentleman, and with that the tall uncle proceeded to toss and tousle the small nephew in a way that damaged his philosophical dignity as much as it delighted his boyish soul.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)