disorient

[ dis-awr-ee-ent, -ohr- ]

verb (used with object)

1. to cause to lose one's way:

   The strange streets disoriented him.

2. to confuse by removing or obscuring something that has guided a person, group, or culture, as customs, moral standards, etc.:

   Society has been disoriented by changing values.

3. Psychiatry. to cause to lose perception of time, place, or one's personal identity.

Word History and Origins

Origin of disorient¹

1645–55; < French désorienter, equivalent to dés- dis- ¹ + orienter to orient

Example Sentences

He acknowledged that some parents and students were disoriented by the transition, but also expressed admiration for the district’s efforts – like providing 80,000 laptops to students and standing up a system of virtual learning.

From Voice of San Diego

Baby sea turtles, which have evolved to evade predators by rushing to the ocean upon hatching, can be disoriented by lights near the shore.

From MIT Technology Review

Officers will typically also deploy devices like flash-bang grenades to disorient occupants.

From Time

Goldberg’s remarks were clearly the sort of “excitable speech” that gender theorist Judith Butler writes about, disorienting us by bringing violent histories to bear on us today.

From No Straight News

Criminal justice activists have accused Raleigh police of fatally shooting a young dad who was “so confused and disoriented that he didn’t even respond to his wife when she spoke to him” following a highway crash in North Carolina.

From The Daily Beast

All this artful excess seems intended to disorient and disinhibit guests descending from the busy theater district above.

From The Daily Beast

Related Words

• amaze
• astonish
• baffle
• befuddle
• bemuse
• complicate
• confound
• daze
• demoralize
• disconcert
• distract
• embarrass
• fluster
• frustrate
• involve
• misinform
• mislead
• mortify
• muddle
• mystify