Definition of disenfranchise
transitive verb
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Examples of disenfranchise in a Sentence
They disenfranchised poor people by making property ownership a requirement for registering to vote.
Recent Examples of disenfranchise from the Web
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As Maduro moves to disenfranchise opponents, his economy is crumbling with triple-digit inflation.
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State government officials are continually finding ways to re-draw voting maps in order to sway voters toward the right and disenfranchise people of color.
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And many of whom are men who are disenfranchised from their own gender or their own identity.
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One key implication of the law's passage is that thousands of felons who were previously disenfranchised have now regained the right to apply to register to vote.
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But choosing humans over money, being kind, treating the weaker and the poorer and the disenfranchised in a way that helped rather than hurt them, that had to be true, the only choice.
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Working-class New Yorkers, who felt politically disenfranchised by the wealthy on one side and immigrants on the other, powered nativist groups to victory in the 1844 city elections.
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Some federal courts have even ruled that disenfranchising minorities is the goal of such laws.
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Critics claim Trump's new commission is an attempt to lay the groundwork for restricting voting rights and disenfranchising minority voters.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'disenfranchise.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
What Does It Mean to Disenfranchise Someone?
Disenfranchise first appeared in English in the 17th century, preceded for a period of some 200 years by the now uncommon word disfranchise. Though both words are, rather obviously, related to franchise, they have nothing to do with that word’s current sense “a team that is a member of a professional sports league." The original meaning of franchise was “freedom from servitude or restraint.” Although disenfranchise does broadly signify depriving someone of any of a number of legal rights, it is most often used today of withholding the right to vote, or of the diminished social or political status of a marginalized group.
First Known Use of disenfranchise
1664
Other Legal Terms
DISENFRANCHISE Defined for English Language Learners
DISENFRANCHISE Defined for Kids
Law Dictionary
legal Definition of disenfranchise
disenfranchised;
disenfranchising
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disenfranchisement
nounSeen and Heard
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