disorderly Hear it!

disorderly Definition

dis·or·derly (dis ôr′dər lē)

adjective

  1. not orderly; untidy; unsystematic
  2. causing a disturbance; unruly; riotous
  3. Law violating public peace, safety, or order

adverb

Archaic in a disorderly manner

disorderly Related Forms
dis·or′·der·li·ness noun
disorderly Synonyms

disorderly

modif.

  1. Lacking orderly arrangement

    indiscriminate, confused, tumultuous, jumbled, undisciplined, unrestrained, heterogeneous, scattered, dislocated, unsystematic, messy, slovenly, untidy, cluttered, unkempt, sloppy, scrambled, badly managed, in confusion, chaotic, disorganized, out of order, in disarray, untrained, out of control, topsy-turvy*, helter-skelter*, higgledy-piggledy*, out of whack*, out of line*, out of step*, all over the place, mixed up*, cockeyed*, messed up*; see also irregular 1, 4.

    Antonyms neat*, organized*, trim. *

  2. Creating a disturbance

    rowdy, disruptive, obstreperous, drunk; see turbulent, unruly.

disorderly Usage Examples

Modifying Another Word

  • so: Why, in short, was everything so slow, so expensive, so disorderly, so often grossly unjust?
  • not: He was lying on a bench and although the group were noisy they were not disorderly and no arrestable offense had been committed.
  • rather: In the evening we went to Rijswijk, where Bram and Olga live in a cramped and rather disorderly house.

Modifies a noun

  • conduct: A man was arrested in the Gunn's Close area of Kirkwall at 6pm on Thursday for alleged disorderly conduct.
  • behavior: We should be tackling the root causes of disorderly behavior, not just the symptoms.
  • manner: A person shall not behave in a disorderly manner in the library or use violent, abusive or obscene language therein.
  • crowd: At around 12.20am, the patrol was in the area close to Turf Lodge when a disorderly crowd began to stone the police vehicles.
  • youth: The police can only contain it at best and the firemen would sooner not have to use a spare hose on disorderly youth.
  • house: In the same year bylaw 66 was passed which brought in a £ 5 fine for keeping a disorderly house.

Used with adjective complement

  • become: There are just so many more ways in which an orderly system can become disorderly than vise versa.
  • seem: The process may seem disorderly since multiple avenues may be followed in parallel, and relevance thresholds may be initially set quite low.
  • walk: Secondly, Because we are charged to withdraw from those that walk disorderly.
  • get: If you get drunk, get violent, get disorderly then you'll get locked up.

Preposition: in

  • public: The heavily intoxicated woman was later arrested and charged with being drunk and disorderly in public.