as in to disrupt
to undo the proper order or arrangement of
his grandfather would always tousle the boy's neatly combed hair
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Examples of tousle in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
For that morning’s scene, her light-auburn hair had been artfully curled and tousled by her longtime hairdresser, Frédéric Souquet.
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Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 6 Dec. 2023
Both the royal and the presidential couples appeared to struggle with a strong wind, which tousled Macron’s hair and forced Camilla to hold on tightly to her pink, beret-style hat.
—Sylvie Corbet, Fortune, 20 Sep. 2023
Follow-up videos then showed the mom-of-four posing with her hair tousled to one side and pouting her lips with a hand held up to her face.
—Jill Lupupa, Peoplemag, 28 July 2023
The president’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden Neal, opted for a strappy sequined silver dress, her hair loosely tousled; her aunt, Ashley Biden, wore a petal-pink cape with beaded epaulets.
—Zoe Glasser, Washington Post, 23 June 2023
See all Example Sentences for tousle 
Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 6 Dec. 2023
Both the royal and the presidential couples appeared to struggle with a strong wind, which tousled Macron’s hair and forced Camilla to hold on tightly to her pink, beret-style hat.
—Sylvie Corbet, Fortune, 20 Sep. 2023
Follow-up videos then showed the mom-of-four posing with her hair tousled to one side and pouting her lips with a hand held up to her face.
—Jill Lupupa, Peoplemag, 28 July 2023
The president’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden Neal, opted for a strappy sequined silver dress, her hair loosely tousled; her aunt, Ashley Biden, wore a petal-pink cape with beaded epaulets.
—Zoe Glasser, Washington Post, 23 June 2023
See all Example Sentences for tousle
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tousle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Tousle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tousle. Accessed 14 Sep. 2024.
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