The Collaborative International Dictionary
discombobulate \discombobulate\ v. to cause to be confused; confuse emotionally.
Syn: confuse, flurry, consternate, disconcert, put off, bewilder, bemuse, throw.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1834, American English, fanciful coinage of a type popular then (originally discombobricate). Related: discombobulating; discombobulation.
Wiktionary
vb. (context transitive humorous English) To throw into a state of confusion; to befuddle or perplex.
WordNet
v. cause to be confused emotionally [syn: bewilder, bemuse, throw]
be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly; "These questions confuse even the experts"; "This question completely threw me"; "This question befuddled even the teacher" [syn: confuse, throw, fox, befuddle, fuddle, bedevil, confound]
Usage examples of "discombobulate".
Simon Templar had no such common-place reactions to personal whimsy: he had enough internal equanimity to concede any human being the right to indulge in any caprice that looked like fun to him, provided the caprice was confined to the home and did not discombobulate the general populace: but he did have a rather abstract personal objection to Ferdinand Pairfield.
It took thirteen years of hard labor on his part and on mine to discombobulate my trust in the normal system of cognition that makes the world around us comprehensible to us.
Its sudden appearance will disconcert, and its speed will discombobulate and terrify them in its unexpectedness, and the gunfire will, I fervently hope, prod them into firing back, before they realize that the barrage consists of blank saluting shells, and that the apparition of the ship among their fleet is merely a big Texas hello!
But my two throwing knives went into the gullet, which seemed to discombobulate the monster for a moment.
It didn't help any that Greyboar must have jumped through leading with his shoulder so we arrived all discombobulated and tangled up.
Elliott and HAWC became proficient enough in killing from very long range with very high precision--toward the end, he began to experiment in ways to Simply disrupt, damage, or discombobulate something from long range and with high precision.
Now completely discombobulated, he stumbled over to the bar, trying desperately to breathe and to stop the pounding in his chest.
Oh, I am so discombobulated this morning I can't find my format or anything.
She'd lost track of the passage of time during their discombobulating passage through place.
They marched on, climbing steadily across the plateau, unaffected by discombobulating dislocations, save for a few minor ones.