disabuse

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English

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Etymology

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From Middle French désabuser, or dis- +‎ abuse.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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disabuse (third-person singular simple present disabuses, present participle disabusing, simple past and past participle disabused)

  1. (transitive) To free (someone) of a misconception or misapprehension; to unveil a falsehood held by (someone).
    • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. [], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, [], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 201:
      I had been too profoundly disabused of life's dearest illusions ever again to allow of their sweet engrossment.
    • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 140:
      If we had any hopes or illusions about the National Party before they came into office, we were disabused of them quickly.
    • 2024 July 11, Theodore Schleifer, Jacob Bernstein, Reid J. Epstein, “How Biden Lost George Clooney and Hollywood”, in The New York Times[1], →ISSN:
      Mr. Katzenberg is now taking his commensurate lumps, particularly because contributors feel he helped disabuse donors’ concerns about Mr. Biden’s physical state.

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