disavow
verb
Dan Chu
Did you know?
When is a vow not a vow? When it has been disavowed, for one. Let’s say you make a solemn pledge to eat green vegetables every day of the week and twice on Sundays. If a few months down the cruciferous road you decide such a diet is for the rabbits, you might disavow (that is, repudiate or deny responsibility for) your earlier vow. Or perhaps you stick to it, going so far as to eat nothing but brassicas 24/7. Well, in that case, your local chapter of the Carnivore’s Club might illustrate another meaning of disavow by disavowing you (refusing to acknowledge or accept you) as a member any longer. Now when is a vow not avow? You might be surprised to learn that vow and avow/disavow are not related. Though all three words came to English from Latin via Anglo-French, they have distinct roots: vow comes from the Latin verb vovēre, meaning “to vow,” while avow and disavow trace back to the verb advocare, meaning “to summon.” We stand by it: there’s no denying that disavow has history.
Examples of disavow in a Sentence
Ali Breland, The Atlantic, 5 Aug. 2025
The previous head of the organization left after sparking backlash with a blog post disavowing John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club.
—New York Times, 11 July 2025
An extended nuclear deterrent of this type, provided by France but ideally also supplemented by the United Kingdom, would certainly merit closer scrutiny if the United States further diluted or even disavowed its security guarantees.
—Florence Gaub, Foreign Affairs, 24 June 2025
The divinity school’s interim dean, David Holland, quickly disavowed the remarks, according to The Harvard Crimson.
—Yasmine Salam, NBC news, 31 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for disavow
Cite this Entry
“Disavow.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disavow. Accessed 20 Aug. 2025.
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disavow
verb
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