as in disrupting
to undo the proper order or arrangement of
his grandfather would always tousle the boy's neatly combed hair
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Recent Examples of tousling
The result appeared toward the end of the post, which included a photo of Stamos checking out his new look and a video of Capri tousling his hair.
—
Ingrid Vasquez, PEOPLE, 14 Jan. 2026
Ingrid Vasquez, PEOPLE, 14 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tousling
Verb
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The hospitality union represents roughly 2,000 workers at the arena, potentially disrupting one of the biggest sporting events in the world.—
Luzdelia Caballero,
CBS News,
18 Apr. 2026
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In such a case, if the people passing the message did not have complete control of their devices, an outsider could potentially subtly change the particles’ entanglement, disrupting the communication without leaving a trace.—
Matt von Hippel,
Quanta Magazine,
17 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The Bruins are shuffling off to Buffalo.—
Steve Conroy,
Boston Herald,
15 Apr. 2026
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The Philadelphia Phillies are shuffling up the bullpen by sending Seth Johnson back to Triple-A Lehigh Valley and recalling Chase Shugart from the IronPigs.—
Tom Dougherty,
CBS News,
14 Apr. 2026
Verb
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But Neptune also blurs lines, which is why its influence can feel mysterious or even confusing at times.—
Valerie Mesa,
PEOPLE,
10 Apr. 2026
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That’s not all that’s confusing across the first season.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
9 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Little green men are disturbing Kacey Musgraves’ golden hour.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
10 Apr. 2026
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The host of a popular paranormal podcast begins to be haunted by disturbing recordings sent to her anonymously.—
Christian Zilko,
IndieWire,
9 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Tousling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tousling. Accessed 20 Apr. 2026.
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