- discompose
- discompose, disquiet, disturb, perturb, agitate, upset, fluster, flurry are comparable when they mean to excite one so as to destroy one's capacity for clear or collected thought or prompt action.Discompose is sometimes only slightly more suggestive of mental confusion than disconcert or discomfit', usually, however, it implies greater emotional stress and an actual loss of self-control or self- confidence{
he was still discomposed by the girl's bitter and sudden retort. It had cast a gloom over him— Joyce
}Disquiet stresses the loss, not of composure, but of something deeper (as one's sense of security or of well-being or one's peace of mind){why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?— Ps 42:11
}{he was indubitably not happy at bottom, restless and disquieted, his disquietude sometimes amounting to agony— Arnold
}{why should we disquiet ourselves in vain in the attempt to direct our destiny— Crothers
}Disturb, unlike the preceding words, carries no implication of a loss of one's balance or of an excess of emotion; usually it implies marked interference with one's mental processes (as by worry, perplexity, disappointment, or interruption){profoundly disturbed by the prospective dissolution of a bond which dated from the seventies— Bennett
}{nothing is more disturbing than the upsetting of a preconceived idea— Conrad
}Perturb implies deep disturbance and unsettlement of mind; it usually connotes a cause for disquietude or alarm{in this perturbed state of mind, with thoughts that could rest on nothing, she walked on— Austen
}{perturbed by excursions into verbal coquetry, and later into political arguments— Hillyer
}Agitate emphasizes the loss of calmness and self-control and implies obvious signs of nervous or emotional excitement. It does not, however, always suggest distress of mind or a cause of worry{so agitated that she was incoherent— Deland
}{growing more and more irritated, more and more agitated— Woolf
}{it was a happiness that agitated rather than soothed her— Crothers
}Upset, like agitate, implies a nervous reaction, but it usually presupposes a cause that brings disappointment or distress or sorrow{they wouldn't have believed they could be so upset by a hurt woodpecker— Cather
}{what upset me in the . . . trial was not the conviction, but the methods of the defense— Laski
}Fluster may carry a suggestion of the excitement and confusion induced by drinking intoxicants{flustered with new wine— Tennyson
}but it usually suggests the agitation, bewilderment, and sometimes fright induced by sudden and often unexpected demands, commands, needs, or crises{the aged housekeeper was no less flustered and hurried in obeying the numerous . . . commands of her mistress— Scott
}Flurry suggests the excitement, commotion, and confusion induced by great haste or alarm{they reached the station, hot and flurried, just as the train pulled out
}{thoughts, with their attendant visions, which . . .flurried her too much to leave her any power of observation— Austen
}{he recognized her and sat down immediately, flurried and confused by his display of excitement— O'Flaherty
}Analogous words: discomfit, disconcert, rattle, faze, *embarrass: vex, irk, bother, *annoy: *worry, harass, plague, pesterContrasted words: appease, *pacify, conciliate, mollify, placate, propitiate
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
