louse up

louse up (third-person singular simple present louses up, present participle lousing up, simple past and past participle loused up)

1. (idiomatic, colloquial) To mess up; to confuse; to put into a state of disorder.
   • 1976, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift, New York: Avon, →ISBN, page 3:

     To be loused up by Humbolt was really a kind of privilege. It was like being the subject of a two-nosed portrait by Picasso, or an eviscerated chicken by Soutine.

• lousy