Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To disturb the order, arrangement, or functioning of.
  • transitive verb To upset (normal condition or functioning, as of a bodily organ).
  • transitive verb To cause to be psychotic or otherwise severely mentally unsound.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To disturb the regular order of; throw into confusion; disconcert; disarrange: as, to derange plans or affairs.
  • To disturb the state, action, or functions of; put out of proper order or condition; disorder; unsettle: as, to derange a machine; his health is much deranged; to derange one's mind or reason.
  • To disorder the mind of; unsettle the reason of, as a person.
  • To disarrange, displace, unsettle, confuse, embarrass, discompose, disconcert.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To put out of place, order, or rank; to disturb the proper arrangement or order of; to throw into disorder, confusion, or embarrassment; to disorder; to disarrange.
  • transitive verb To disturb in action or function, as a part or organ, or the whole of a machine or organism.
  • transitive verb To disturb in the orderly or normal action of the intellect; to render insane.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb to cause someone to go insane (usually used in the passive, see deranged)
  • verb to cause disorder in something, to distort it from its ideal state
  • verb archaic to disrupt somebody's plans, to inconvenience someone

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb throw into great confusion or disorder
  • verb derange mentally, throw out of mental balance; make insane

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French déranger, from Old French desrengier : des-, de- + reng, line (of Germanic origin; see sker- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French déranger, from Old French desrengier ("throw into disorder"), from des- + rengier ("to put into line"), from reng ("line, row"), from a Germanic source. See rank (noun).

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Examples

  • Absolute knowledge, by contrast, is not total but unconditional knowledge, the following of a particular direction or connection for its own sake, without regard for its potential to "derange" the whole (Schelling, First Outline 26).

    'The Abyss of the Past': Psychoanalysis in Schelling's Ages of the World (1815) 2008

  • The first example given for "derange" in the OED that fits the meaning "to disorder the mind of, unsettle the reason of" is from 1825 "The trouble which our youth was thought to bear With such indifference hath deranged his head."

    Slumgullion #36 -- The deranged killer edition Kay Olson 2007

  • She could see that he really was grieved to 'derange' her, but that circumstances pressed.

    The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett 1899

  • I should have advanced far enough in the science not to derange their mechanism.

    Chapter 2 2010

  • He then took me into his laboratory, and explained to me the uses of his various machines; instructing me as to what I ought to procure, and promising me the use of his own when I should have advanced far enough in the science not to derange their mechanism.

    Chapter 3 2010

  • There are no 'derange liberals' posting here, only very astute intelligent Americans.

    In Eugene, Palin says she eats granola too 2010

  • I wouldnt trade it: I can intuit things you can't, enjoy things that would bore you crosseyed, exult in solitary pursuits that might derange another man, convince you of things you'd never believe, teach and explain things to you you think youd never understand.

    Aspergers 2010

  • There are no derange liberals posting here, they are very astute observers of a very deranged woman that the right wing wackadoodles seem to have put up on a pedestal.

    In Eugene, Palin says she eats granola too 2010

  • Meanwhile, home on derange, most people would rather watch a Cialis commercial than listen to anything Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, or Keith Olbermann have to say.

    Jayne Lyn Stahl: Toxic Shock Doctrine? 2009

  • But she has left it within the power of man irreparably to derange the combinations of inorganic matter and of organic life …. man is everywhere a disturbing agent.

    Marsh, George Perkins 2009

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