disarray

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsəˈɹeɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ

Verb

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.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 46:

     So as she bad, that witch they disaraid

Antonyms

• array

Derived terms

• disarrayment

Translations

To throw into disorder; to break the array of

Bulgarian: разбърквам (bg) (razbǎrkvam) Catalan: desordenar (ca), desgavellar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 混乱 (zh) (hùnluàn) Dutch: verstoren (nl), verwarren (nl) Finnish: sekoittaa (fi), panna sekaisin, saattaa epäjärjestykseen French: désordonner (fr), troubler (fr), perturber (fr) Hindi: व्यूहभंग m (vyūhbhaṅg) Macedonian: ра́стера (rástera), ра́збрка (rázbrka) Romanian: dezorganiza (ro), zăpăci (ro)

To take off the dress of; to unrobe

Bulgarian: събличам (bg) (sǎbličam) Dutch: uitkleden (nl) Macedonian: со́блече (sóbleče) Romanian: dezbrăca (ro)

Noun

disarray (uncountable)

1. Lack of array or regular order; disorder; confusion.
   • 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC‎:

     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

• See also Thesaurus:disorder

Translations

Want of array or regular order

Bulgarian: бъркотия (bg) f (bǎrkotija), безпорядък (bg) m (bezporjadǎk) Catalan: desordre (ca) m, desori (ca) m, desgavell (ca) m Dutch: wanorde (nl) Finnish: sekasorto (fi), kaaos (fi), epäjärjestys (fi) French: désordre (fr) m, désarroi (fr) m, zizanie (fr) f, chaos (fr) m German: Unordnung (de) f Macedonian: брко́тија f (brkótija) Maori: kaumingomingo Norwegian: Bokmål: ulage, uorden m Ottoman Turkish: قارش (karış) Plautdietsch: Onzucht f Portuguese: cizânia (pt) f Romanian: dezordine (ro) f, neorânduială (ro) f Spanish: desorden (es) Swedish: oreda (sv) c, oordning (sv) c Ukrainian: безла́ддя (uk) n (bezláddja)

Confused attire; undress

Finnish: epäjärjestys (fi) German: Verwirrung (de) f