verb (used with object)
- to cause to lose one’s way: The strange streets disoriented him.
- to confuse by removing or obscuring something that has guided a person, group, or culture, as customs, moral standards, etc.: Society has been disoriented by changing values.
- Psychiatry. to cause to lose perception of time, place, or one’s personal identity.
1650s, from French désorienter “to cause to lose one’s bearings,” literally “to turn from the east,” from dés- (see dis-) + orienter (see orient (v.)). Related: Disoriented; disorienting.