Dishevelled means untidy in hair and clothes, as though you have been blown about. Shirt out, hair everywhere, no time to fix it.
It describes appearance only, and it is gentler than scruffy because it suggests a temporary state rather than a habit. Somebody arriving dishevelled has hurried or slept badly rather than stopped caring. British English doubles the l and American English writes disheveled with one. The word once referred to hair specifically, from an old French word for the head of hair.
1adjectivedishevelledUntidy in hair and clothing, as if hurried or blown about.
“He arrived late and rather dishevelled.”
Also accepted in games: disheveled
Dishevelled is about the hair alone. Old French deschevelé meant with the hair undone, from chevel, a hair, and only later did the word spread to the rest of the clothes.
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Old French
deschevelé
English, today
dishevelled
Built from
From earlier dishevely, from Old French deschevelé (modern French déchevelé and échevelé), from des- (“dis-”), + chevel (“hair”) (modern French cheveu). See there for more details.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA