😟 Causing worry 🌪️ Making unstable

unsettling

1 5.1

Making something unstable or likely to move

adjective
/ʌnˈsɛtəlɪŋ/

: desestabilizador

In the dense mountain clay, there are the outlines of walls, stairs, and benches, but it's unsettling.

Examples

Moving furniture around in her bedroom was unsettling for the young child.
I know that for a young child, moving furniture around can be unsettling, especially when it is in their bedroom.

Blog text (9)
Most unsettling was the victims' clothing, which could be seen here and there decaying in the ground.

Blog text (3)
Lithium-ion batteries also have a rather unsettling tendency, on rare occasions, to burst into flames.

Academic text (2010)
Sudden change can be destabilizing, unsettling to allies, inconsistent with commitments, and deemed further evidence of unreliability.

Academic text (1992)
At about 8 p.m. on Monday night, the east-facing windows in my Brooklyn apartment started to bubble and buckle inward in a deeply unsettling way.

Blog text (15)
The sudden loud noise was unsettling, causing everyone to stop and look around.
Seeing the painting tilted at an unsettling angle made her feel uneasy.

Antonyms

to anchor

82 3.4

To hold something in place so it does not move

stabilizing

10 3.7

Making something steady and less likely to change suddenly

How Unstable

to topple

87 4.1

to dislodge

29 6.1

unsettling

1 5.1

to shaking

213 1.0

jostling

2 3.6

loosening

4 3.4

Surface Forms

unsettling positive

Morphology

unsettling = unsettle (transparent) = un + settle + ing

The physical sense ('make unstable or dislodged') follows directly from 'un-' + 'settle' and the participial '-ing'.

Etymology

Unsettling is made of un- meaning 'not' and settle meaning 'to put in place or make steady', like in a settlement. So an unsettling movement makes a thing 'not steady' and can cause wobble or dislodging.