unbalance
/ʌnˈbal(ə)ns
/verb [with object]
1Make (someone or something) unsteady so that they tip or fall: the door almost unbalanced him by swinging open...
- I managed to wiggle underneath them all, dislodging those on the very top by unbalancing the unsteady column.
- The sudden weight unbalanced me and I fell face first onto the floor.
- Following through, the sudden change in inertia and momentum unbalanced her, and she fell on the bed, then to the floor.
2Upset or disturb the equilibrium of (a situation or person’s state of mind): this sharing can often unbalance even the closest of relationships...
- Mac could not help feeling that Staten had taken the view that the state of his mind had been unbalanced by recent events.
- Does this also mean that it was also very tightly written, that there was nothing you could cut out without unbalancing everything?
- The latter scene is great drama but seems just slightly too strong for the film, it unbalances what had until that point been a perfectly constructed piece.
noun
A lack of symmetry, balance, or stability: an unbalance between the currents in the live and neutral wires [mass noun]: there appears to be very little horizontal stress unbalance...
- The accumulation of wealth in the western society and no children of homosexuals to inherit them will cause an unbalance someday.
- The analysis was repeated by controlling for surgical treatment and stage at diagnosis to assess whether the effect of ethnicity on lung cancer survival persisted after adjusting for unbalances in these factors.
- The slight unbalance and distraction (here a loud shout or kiai could also be added) weakens the grab, something that facilitates forcing your arms upwards.