Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To disarrange or rumple; dishevel.
- noun A disheveled mass, as of hair.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To pull about roughly; plague or tease good-naturedly by pulling about: as, to
tousle the girls. - To put into disorder, as by pulling about roughly: dishevel; rumple: as, to
tousle one's hair.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb colloq. To put into disorder; to tumble; to touse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To put into
disorder ; totumble ; totouse ; tomuss .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb disarrange or rumple; dishevel
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Occasionally you will reach over and tousle her hair, or she may lean against your leg.
John Merrow: E.D. Hirsch, Linda Katz, and Mike Smith Weigh in on Reading Development John Merrow 2011
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My gaze focused on my lover, my heart doing a little flip at the sight of him, his hair in its familiar tousle that fell over his forehead.
My Fair Succubi Jill Myles 2011
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About 15 million people will watch her tousle that dyed blonde hair as she gamely re-enacts one of her iconic performances.
Mara Reinstein: Oh Baby, Baby: Britney Spears Makes a Comeback Mara Reinstein 2010
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Marcus paused to scrub at his clean-shaven face, then tousle hair inexpertly trimmed with his own shears.
G'lder Curtis Hox 2011
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My gaze focused on my lover, my heart doing a little flip at the sight of him, his hair in its familiar tousle that fell over his forehead.
My Fair Succubi Jill Myles 2011
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About 15 million people will watch her tousle that dyed blonde hair as she gamely re-enacts one of her iconic performances.
Mara Reinstein: Oh Baby, Baby: Britney Spears Makes a Comeback Mara Reinstein 2010
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Occasionally you will reach over and tousle her hair, or she may lean against your leg.
John Merrow: E.D. Hirsch, Linda Katz, and Mike Smith Weigh in on Reading Development John Merrow 2011
-
My gaze focused on my lover, my heart doing a little flip at the sight of him, his hair in its familiar tousle that fell over his forehead.
My Fair Succubi Jill Myles 2011
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Paparazzi video and she herself becomes a kind of scoliotic (yes, I just made that word up) bionic woman after she falls from a balcony in a theatrical lovers 'tousle:
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Mostly we learn that Gilbert was so restless that a cure for her ennui -- sex with a younger man (even one as tousle-haired as James Franco) -- didn't do it for her.
Brad Balfour: Huff Post Review: A Trio of Films Offer Inspiration, but Only Two Deliver 2010
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