Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To free from a falsehood or misconception: I must disabuse you of your feelings of grandeur.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To free from mistake; undeceive; relieve from fallacy or deception; set right: as, it is our duty to disabuse ourselves of false notions and prejudices.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To free (someone) of a misconception or misapprehension; to unveil a falsehood held by (somebody).
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To set free from mistakes; to undeceive; to disengage from fallacy or deception; to set right; -- often used with of.
WordNet 3.0
- v. free somebody (from an erroneous belief)
Etymologies
- From dis- + abuse. (Wiktionary)
- French désabuser : dés-, dis- + abuser, to delude (from Old French, to misuse; see abuse). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This talent to disabuse is in large part the obverse of Coward’s capacity for shrewd self-assessment.”
“Denver citizens made a trip to Washington in 1907, and reporters of the day noted that the city representatives had to "disabuse" the Washingtonians of their belief that wild Indians roamed the streets and the men all dressed in buckskins.”
“They kind of disabuse you of the notion of your greatness pretty quickly.”
“They kind of disabuse you of the notion of your greatness pretty quickly.”
“They kind of disabuse you of the notion of your greatness pretty quickly, "he told the mag.”
The Celebrity Blog , Celebrity gossip juicy celebrity rumors Hollywood gossip blog
“He wanted to disabuse people of the expectation that government would solve every problem.”
“The school's principal, assistant principal and other faculty members attempt to disabuse him of the fantasy that he's starring in a real-life version of "Stand and Deliver.”
The Washington Post: Tony Danza teaches English in real Philadelphia high school in A&E TV show
“I once went on a ride-along with a state trooper who was quick to disabuse me of the glamour in police work.”
“The Americans did not disabuse them of this notion; once the Taliban got wind of the U.S. death ray, units would often surrender.”
“It is time to disabuse ourselves of the idea that nuclear power can solve our problems.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Moynihan: Energy One Year Later
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘disabuse’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august and 401 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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March 2012
panache, evanescent, erogenous, vestibule, malfeasance, lacuna, blithering, incubate, breech, tabernacle, pearly, upholstery and 79 more...
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gre
divest, elixir, onerous, disabuse, discern, sordid, erudition, broach, beguile, apologia, elusive, capacious and 7 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1908 more...
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magoosh1
aberration, aboveboard, abysmal, ace, affable, aghast, alacrity, ambiguous, ambivalent, ameliorate, amenable, amiable and 222 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for disabuse.
Prolagus Is the failure to disabuse yourself of science any more dangerous than the failure to disabuse yourself of philosophy, or mathematics, or logic, or psychology, or theology?
(from: VVAA, The Interaction Between Science and Philosophy) Sep 22, 2008