Did you know?

We know the verb abuse as a word meaning "to misuse," "to mistreat," or "to revile." But when disabuse first appeared in the early 17th century, there was a sense of abuse, now obsolete, that meant "to deceive." Sir Francis Bacon used that sense, for example, when he wrote in 1605, "You are much abused if you think your virtue can withstand the King's power." The prefix dis- has the sense of undoing the effect of a verb, so it's not surprising that disabuse means "to undeceive." English speakers didn't come up with the idea of joining dis- to abuse all on their own, however. It was the French who first appended their prefix dés- to their verb abuser. English disabuse is modeled after French désabuser.

Examples of disabuse in a Sentence

let me disabuse you of your foolish notions about married life

Recent Examples on the Web The West can do more to disabuse him of the notion. — Wsj Editorial Staff, WSJ, 10 Feb. 2022 The West can do more to disabuse him of the notion. — Wsj Editorial Staff, WSJ, 10 Feb. 2022 The West can do more to disabuse him of the notion. — Wsj Editorial Staff, WSJ, 10 Feb. 2022 The West can do more to disabuse him of the notion. — Wsj Editorial Staff, WSJ, 10 Feb. 2022 Chelsea, Manchester City and P.S.G. could not disabuse Real Madrid of its abiding belief in its own agency; Ancelotti and his players have plenty of reason to be confident that Liverpool will go the same way. — New York Times, 28 May 2022 The West can do more to disabuse him of the notion. — Wsj Editorial Staff, WSJ, 10 Feb. 2022 Just one term on the City Council was enough to disabuse her of that notion. — Adrian Walker, BostonGlobe.com, 13 May 2022 The West can do more to disabuse him of the notion. — Wsj Editorial Staff, WSJ, 10 Feb. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'disabuse.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.