Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To free from something bothersome or encumbering; relieve.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To free from embarrassment, or from anything that causes embarrassment; clear; extricate: as, her affability completely disembarrassed him; to disembarrass one of a load of care, or of a load of parcels.
  • Synonyms Disentangle, Release, etc.See disengage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To free from embarrassment, or perplexity; to clear; to extricate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive to get (someone) out of an embarrassing situation; to free from embarrassment

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb relieve from

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

dis- + embarrass

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Examples

  • Given the strong, if mainly rhetorical, support of the Soviet bloc for the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale (whose forerunner was founded on the day that Dien Bien Phu fell, and which had in its ranks hardened soldiers who had once fought under French colors in Indochina), all that was lacking was a French statesman who could see the need to disembarrass his country of those who ostensibly were the most devoted to it.

    A French Quarrel 2006

  • Given the strong, if mainly rhetorical, support of the Soviet bloc for the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale (whose forerunner was founded on the day that Dien Bien Phu fell, and which had in its ranks hardened soldiers who had once fought under French colors in Indochina), all that was lacking was a French statesman who could see the need to disembarrass his country of those who ostensibly were the most devoted to it.

    A French Quarrel 2006

  • In the meantime Dame Elspeth assisted to disembarrass the damsel whom she destined for her future daughter-inlaw, of her hood, mantle, and the rest of her riding gear, giving her to appear as beseemed the buxom daughter of the wealthy Miller, gay and goodly, in a white kirtle, the seams of which were embroidered with green silken lace or fringe, entwined with some silver thread.

    The Monastery 2008

  • He remarked that property was property, by which he meant to intimate that the real owner of substantial wealth could not be allowed to disembarrass himself of his responsibilities or strip himself of his privileges by a few generous but idle words.

    Phineas Redux 2004

  • At the present moment, it was the great desire of his heart to sell the smaller of his two properties and disembarrass the other.

    The Way We Live Now 2004

  • The arrangement made as to the Pickering estate would pay all his debts, would disembarrass his own property, and would still leave him a comfortable sum in hand.

    The Way We Live Now 2004

  • Her fortune is more than sufficient to disembarrass my affairs; her good sense will be a seasonable check upon my vivacity; her agreeable accomplishments will engage a continuation of affection and regard.

    The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom 2004

  • That the Mortifications which they and their Tools might give me there might disembarrass them of me sooner than any where.

    Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 April 1783 1993

  • The effort to disembarrass himself of the onus of nuclear recklessness will take up a great deal of Goldwater's time, and we may here see more of his ingenious improvisations.

    A Long View: Goldwater in History Hofstadter, Richard 1964

  • He was tired of her and seeking for a means to disembarrass himself of her.

    The Sheik

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