UNSETTLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unsettle mean? 

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

1. disturb the composure of

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNSETTLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they unsettle    ... he / she / it unsettles   
Past simple: unsettled   
Past participle: unsettled   
-ing form: unsettling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Disturb the composure of

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

enervate; faze; unnerve; unsettle

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

discomfit; discompose; disconcert; untune; upset (cause to lose one's composure)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "unsettle"):

unman (cause to lose one's nerve)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The bad news will unsettle him

 Context examples 

A large party in an hotel ensured a quick-changing, unsettled scene.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Their manner of living, even when the restoration of peace dismissed them to a home, was unsettled in the extreme.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

“It is to his credit,” was Edmund's answer; “and I dare say it gives his sister pleasure. She does not like his unsettled habits.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I feel in a misty and unsettled kind of state; as if I had got up very early in the morning a week or two ago, and had never been to bed since.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

You might have more unsettling news regarding this area when Mars opposes unpredictable Uranus on November 24.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Scientists have identified mechanisms in the human brain that could help explain the phenomenon of the ‘Uncanny Valley’ – the unsettling feeling we get from robots and virtual agents that are too human-like.

(Scientists identify possible source of the ‘Uncanny Valley’ in the brain, University of Cambridge)

But my plan was unsettled, and I wandered many hours round the confines of the town, uncertain what path I should pursue.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Nausea is an uneasy or unsettled feeling in the stomach together with an urge to vomit.

(Nausea and Vomiting, NIH)

We used to be faithful about it, but since Father went away and all this war trouble unsettled us, we have neglected many things.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“I have not a bitter drop in my heart for mine old comrade; but the quarrel, as he hath told you, is still open and unsettled. Fall on, Aylward!”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)