Home UK English disorder

Meaning of disorder in English:

disorder

Pronunciation /dɪsˈɔːdə/

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noun

mass noun

  • 1A state of confusion.

    ‘the world 's currency markets were in disorder’
    • ‘In fact, from the moment her family jumped in the car to go on their yearly camping trip, her life was full of chaos, disorder and confusion.’
    • ‘Looking at the current list, with almost every line scribbled out and switched around, there remains considerable disorder and confusion among the students.’
    • ‘Judging by Andy's experience, the Greek courts are a forum for disorder and confusion.’
    • ‘No one seems the least outraged that traders seek profit from this confusion and disorder.’
    • ‘The term, meaning a state of intense disorder or confusion, is commonly applied to loud bands who offer a somewhat masochistic listening experience.’
    • ‘Both men acknowledge a state of modern urban disorder and confusion.’
    • ‘The lack of management will cause disorder, confusion, wastage, delay, destruction and even depression.’
    • ‘A tidy room dissolves into disorder and confusion in a matter of moments.’
    • ‘This too, then, accounts for some of the apparent confusion and disorder in the world.’
    • ‘My mind was in such a whir of confusion and disorder.’
    • ‘He was inclined to view this as a sign of disorder, but he has learnt that a clean-up session which gets them out of sight is not appreciated by his regular customers.’
    • ‘The implementation of that policy has been a disaster: the legacy is one of disorder and decay.’
    • ‘It was that taken as a whole the night yielded an unmistakable sense of decay and disorder.’
    • ‘The latter argued that economic independence (an essential ingredient for citizenship among men) caused disorder and decay in women.’
    • ‘Jack trails behind, his eyes still searching the place for some sign of disorder.’
    • ‘But the market is in disorder, overrun by fake and inferior goods.’
    • ‘But the unpredictable disorder of markets is, in Microsoft parlance, not a bug but a feature.’
    • ‘Decay and disorder are seen in reverse, as increasing.’
    • ‘I knew that I needed to abstract what I wanted from the general confusion and the disorder of the scene.’
    • ‘‘If there isn't enough time to figure this out, we'll see disorder in the market next year,’ she said.’
    untidiness, disorderliness, mess, disarray, disorganization, chaos, confusion
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    1. 1.1The breakdown of peaceful and law-abiding public behaviour.
      ‘recurrent food crises led to outbreaks of disorder’
      • ‘The White Paper anticipated that it would be used as the most usual charge in relation to serious outbreaks of public disorder.’
      • ‘The operation has led to four arrests for public disorder, breach of an anti-social behaviour order and of a defendant who missed court.’
      • ‘Hamilton Terrace was particularly busy and two men were arrested for public disorder offences after a disturbance on New Year's Eve.’
      • ‘‘We are concerned about the rise in alcohol-fuelled disorder, fights and disturbances in public places,’ said Sir Ian.’
      • ‘Whilst disorder hereabouts is at a lower level, public disorder and crimes in public areas are an important issue.’
      • ‘Complaints have been made to the police of threats and intimidation, assaults, criminal damage and public disorder.’
      • ‘Teenage yobs are to be forced to wear US-style uniforms as they carry out community service punishments under plans for a new high-visibility crackdown on public disorder.’
      • ‘Last year 50 people were arrested in York and Selby in the run-up to Christmas for incidents ranging from drunken domestic disputes to assaults and public disorder.’
      • ‘Binge drinking is the latest word being used to describe what was once a social thing but is now marked by violence, public disorder and a long road towards poor health and alcoholism.’
      • ‘Both were fined 900 leva for causing public disorder.’
      • ‘In the weeks before the parade Wilson insisted the organisation would take a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to public disorder and sectarian abuse.’
      • ‘Bratton's attack on street disorder has dramatically improved public space downtown, according to local businesses.’
      • ‘It also argues that waiting times create a gap in the market, partly filled by illegal cabs, while a limited taxi supply can add to police problems in dealing with late night public disorder.’
      • ‘He sets off towards the front line, hoping to make good his promise of humanitarian care, but finds yet more confusion and disorder at odds with his clinical skills.’
      • ‘In addition, the presence of wardens is one of the swiftest ways to reduce the petty crimes - graffiti, litter and vandalism - which are the early signs of disorder.’
      • ‘The Goldwater delegates in San Francisco were not very sympathetic to these signs of social disorder, nor to any Republicans they felt might be too soft on such forces.’
      • ‘It was suggested that any sign of social disorder in a community would serve as an enticement to others to break the law.’
      • ‘The arrests were made for a range of alleged offences including racist chanting and violent disorder when the teams met at Wednesday's Hillsborough ground on Saturday.’
      unrest, disturbance, disruption, upheaval, tumult, turmoil, mayhem, pandemonium
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    2. 1.2count noun An illness or condition that disrupts normal physical or mental functions.
      ‘skin disorders’
      • ‘eating disorders’
      • ‘an improved understanding of mental disorder’
      • ‘What is achieved by concluding that schizophrenia and other functional mental illnesses are disorders of the brain?’
      • ‘My Dad always thought I had some sort of disorder where my eyes confused themselves or something.’
      • ‘Any sportsman who experienced warning symptoms such as fainting during training or with a family history of sudden death should be screened an tested for signs of cardiac disorder.’
      • ‘Patients with CFS often complain of myalgias and arthralgias, but exhibit no diagnostic signs of musculoskeletal disorder.’
      • ‘And habits that are in response to obsessive thoughts may be a sign of obsessive-compulsive disorder.’
      disease, infection, complaint, problem, condition, dysfunction, affliction, malady, sickness, illness, ailment, infirmity, disability
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verb

[with object]

  • Disrupt the systematic functioning or neat arrangement of.

    ‘they are disordering the political landscape’
    • ‘she disordered the house to suggest that the killer had been a burglar’
    • ‘Her hair was disordered but she wouldn't care this day, nor had she cared any other day.’
    • ‘Her hair was tangled and disordered, forming wispy curls towards the front.’
    • ‘There are passages where the narrative flounders, information is disordered and the author loses focus, veering from rich narrative to dry anthropology.’
    • ‘Can economists be really relied upon as forecasters when they try to place a framework of order or rationality on a world that is fundamentally disordered?’
    • ‘So his letters are astonishingly disordered and strange.’
    • ‘I leave trails of books, clothes and empty coffee mugs behind me everywhere I go, and then despair at how disordered the house is.’
    • ‘I may be objectively disordered but I've been celibate all my life!’
    • ‘And this looseness and blowsiness is not anything as simple and scandalous as abrupt and disordered syntax.’
    • ‘Shifting between ordered streets and disordered streets provides the rich variation only a truly urban space is capable of.’
    • ‘We shuffle them and they are jumbled - disordered.’
    • ‘What if something we take for granted, something utterly predictable, suddenly became unpredictable and chaotic and disordered?’
    • ‘Old memories floated around her, disordered and chaotic.’
    • ‘If a state is thought to be so disordered that it can't administer its own justice, the remedy is not an outside court but a new government.’
    • ‘Instead they consist of chairs with elongated legs, cast from lead and steel, which are arranged as though violently disordered.’
    • ‘The temptation is not sinful, but it remains disordered.’
    • ‘The life of the autobiographer is fittingly tumultuous and disordered.’
    • ‘They seem to find meaning or pattern in what outsiders consider so disordered.’
    • ‘These are the things that we fear will disorder our lives and undo us, these are the things we wish we could control but cannot, they are out of reach of law and our conscious will.’
    • ‘She has the knack of highlighting many of the cultural forces and influences that so disorder our sexuality as moderns.’

Origin

Late 15th century (as a verb): alteration, influenced by order, of earlier disordain, from Old French desordener, ultimately based on Latin ordinare ‘ordain’.