Word of the Day:

April 20, 2010

tousle

verb TOW-zul

What it Means

: dishevel, rumple

Tousle in Context

Vic stood in front of the mirror and tousled his hair, trying to master the cool, disheveled look.

More example sentences

Did You Know?

"Tousle" is a word that has been through what linguists call a "functional shift." That's a fancy way of saying it was originally one part of speech, then gradually came to have an additional function. "Tousle" started out as a verb back in the 15th century. By the late 19th century, "tousle" was also being used as a noun meaning "a tangled mass (as of hair)." Etymologists connect the word to an Old High German word meaning "to pull to pieces."

Want to listen to the Word of the Day instead?