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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
disarray
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
total
▪ On the evening of 20 November the Prime Minister's swift decision to fight on plunged the Conservatives into almost total disarray.
▪ They were in total disarray from the start.
▪ However, John de Wolf made it 3-0 after 52 minutes and from then San Marino were in total disarray.
■ VERB
fall
▪ Almost certainly textiles had fallen into some disarray by early 1524.
▪ His election as president seemed certain, even before the Radicals fell into disarray with Mr Sourrouille's resignation.
▪ Soon after Five Easy Pieces and his affair with Anspach, his own personal life fell into disarray.
throw
▪ But a Cup replay would throw those plans into disarray.
▪ This might be thought to throw into disarray our grounds for specifying what animals see, hear, and otherwise sense.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
throw sb/sth into confusion/chaos/disarray etc
▪ Advancing on a narrow front, the bristling schiltrons threw their opponents into confusion on such unfamiliar, unstable ground.
▪ But a Cup replay would throw those plans into disarray.
▪ He briefly dissolved Congress in 1992 to successfully fight two guerrilla insurgencies that had thrown the country into chaos.
▪ However, the death of Vial shortly afterwards threw everything into confusion.
▪ Instead, it was going directly across their path, which threw them into confusion.
▪ It was their starting-point that was often illogical or arbitrary and threw the listener into confusion.
▪ Now the ruling, which could open the way for new prosecutions, has thrown the issue into chaos.
▪ Since the middle of the 1870s a world monetary depression had thrown trade into confusion.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Meade was pushed back, his formations in disarray.
▪ Now that global capitalism is in disarray, it would make sense to support local businesses.
▪ On the whole, the Empire's fortunes were good, and the land remained united despite interludes of disarray.
▪ The teaching profession is in disarray, speaking with no coherent voice.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Disarray

Disarray \Dis`ar*ray"\, n. [Cf. F. d['e]sarroi.]

  1. Want of array or regular order; disorder; confusion.

    Disrank the troops, set all in disarray.
    --Daniel.

  2. Confused attire; undress.
    --Spenser.

Disarray

Disarray \Dis`ar*ray"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Disarrayed; p. pr. & vb. n. Disarraying.] [Pref. dis- + array, v.: cf. OF. desarroyer, desarreier.]

  1. To throw into disorder; to break the array of.

    Who with fiery steeds Oft disarrayed the foes in battle ranged.
    --Fenton.

  2. To take off the dress of; to unrobe.

    So, as she bade, the witch they disarrayed.
    --Spenser.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
disarray

late 14c.; see dis- "lack of" + array. Perhaps formed on the analogy of Old French desareer.

disarray

early 15c., "disorder, confusion;" see disarray (v.).

Wiktionary
disarray

n. Want of array or regular order; disorder; confusion. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To throw into disorder; to break the array of. 2 (context transitive English) To take off the dress of; to unrobe.

WordNet
disarray
  1. n. a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior; "a confusion of impressions" [syn: confusion, mental confusion, confusedness]

  2. untidiness (especially of clothing and appearance) [syn: disorderliness]

  3. v. bring disorder to [syn: disorder] [ant: order]

Wikipedia
Disarray

Disarray may refer to:

  • Disarray, EP by Pound (band)
  • "Disarray", song by Red Flag (band) composed by Chris Reynolds / Mark Reynolds The Eagle and Child (album) 2000
  • "Disarray", song by Lifehouse (band) composed by Jason Wade from Who We Are (Lifehouse album)
  • "Disarray", song by Tommy Keene composed Keene
  • Miss Disarray single from the Gin Blossoms 2010 album No Chocolate Cake

Usage examples of "disarray".

Her long slightly curly hair was spread all around her, in waves of disarray upon her pillow.

Shuffling her shoes into the corner, Diane continued with the farce that Cardiff demanded, prying into tables, book-cases and elsewhere, leaving everything in disarray.

I got back to my little bunk and saw it in a state of terrible disarray, I remembered that Debs should have been here but was, instead, in the hospital.

The stately disarray of lodgepole pine, Engelmann spruce, and alpine fir yielded to the rolling grasslands of Hayden Valley.

But at the very time when an ideologically cohesive party could pick up the pieces and forge a sustaining majority, the Republican Party is in total disarray.

Hota apologized for its sorry condition, but Magali paid no attention to the disarray and walked over to the wall beside his bed and began to inspect the weathered gray boards, running her forefinger along the black complexities of their grain, appearing to admire them as though they were made of the finest marble.

My hand darted under the coat, brushing over a bare thigh, a little too slowly to catch her hand, but the disarray of her skirt and the damp nether strip of her panties gave her away.

The pieces are all in disarray, and I cannot recall a single move that was made.

His sandy disarray of hair looked even more tousled than usual, and he moved spryly for a man in his late thirties.

Restless, unable to sleep, he paced the bartizans and battlements, his short cloak flying out behind him like wings, his unkempt hair streaming back from his head in wild disarray.

One small ship with minuscule guns had driven the battlewagons into disarray, giving the baby flattops a few minutes of respite.

These trees were the carpetbaggers of an ecological society smashed and in disarray: thorn, mesquite, cabbage palm, winding lianas.

Here, in full color and again in black and white, I could see fabric, crowded countertops in use, sofa pillows in disarray, a vase full of sagging flowers in an inch of darkened water, rag rugs, the spindle-lathed wooden chair legs.

Despite the malicious attacks on him, the furor over the Alien and Sedition Acts, unpopular taxes, betrayals by his own cabinet, the disarray of the Federalists, and the final treachery of Hamilton, he had, in fact, come very close to winning in the electoral count.

The gawks looked confused and immobilized now that their Verities were all in disarray.