misarray

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ array. Compare Middle English misarraien (“to disorder”).

Noun

misarray (uncountable)

1. disarray; disorder; confusion
   • 1810, Walter Scott, “Canto V. The Combat.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza XXVII, page 231:

     Then uproar wild and misarray/ Marr'd the fair form of festal day.

   • 1946, Catholic World, volume 163:

     If need be, madam, sweep the room
     But leave my desk in misarray:
     So even in my den at Doom
     If need be, madam, sweep the room
     And gather me with but a broom.

   • 2013, John Howard Reid, History in Movies Hollywood Style:

     But for me, even worse than the stilted dialogue, the stagy direction and theatrically artificial “acting”, were the totally disconcerting jump cuts between the studio scenes – artfully misdirected by Anthony Kimmins against an incredible misarray of outrageously phoney backdrops — and the location footage, into which a lot of money was obviously poured on hordes of costumed extras.

   • 2017, William Flewelling, Inn-By-The-Bye Stories:

     She thanked Thyruid and rubbed her hair free from the excess water, leaving her head in a twisted, tousled misarray.

See also

• misarrayed