disservice

noun dis·ser·vice \ (ˌ)di(s)-ˈsər-vəs \

Definition of disservice

:ill service :harm; also :an unhelpful, unkind, or harmful act

misinformation that does a disservice to readers

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See disservice defined for kids

Examples of disservice in a Sentence

Her comments were a disservice to those volunteers.
you do a great disservice to the professionals at the day-care center when you refer to them as “babysitters”

Recent Examples of disservice from the Web

That law was a grave disservice to Muslim women, according to Noorjehan Safia Niaz, co-founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, one of the Muslim women’s advocacy groups that filed a brief in the Supreme Court case.

— jeffrey gettleman and suhasini raj, New York Times, "India’s Supreme Court Strikes Down ‘Instant Divorce’ for Muslims," 22 Aug. 2017
Unfortunately, overdoing a sight gag does a bit of disservice to Jenny Wright's performance as the food critic, Jayne Fryman.

— patti restivo, Laurel Leader, "Bundles of energy in APL Drama Club's latest," 17 Aug. 2017
As for the memorials, removing them would be a disservice, Sherrill said.

— erika butler, The Aegis, "Both sides of Civil War represented in Harford courthouse portraits," 16 Aug. 2017
The cuts are generally mild -- but coming at a time that the economy is roaring, and many educators see them as a disservice to students' educations.

— gordon r. friedman, OregonLive.com, "Oregon schools cut staff and programs despite big budget increases," 11 Aug. 2017
While commonly thought of relative to the high school classroom, this instruction must be provided as early as possible to avoid doing our children a grave disservice.

— julie heath, Cincinnati.com, "Region's economy: How we all win," 4 Aug. 2017
A number of Park rangers were made available for the celebrity’s personal tour but allocating such extensive government resources to a celebrity would have been a waste of money and a disservice to average parkgoers.

— lisa rein, Washington Post, "Interior Dept. ordered Glacier park chief, other climate expert pulled from Zuckerberg tour," 20 July 2017
And sure, Sanders’ base is still quite active and, as Vox astutely reports, the Democratic Party is in bad shape and would do itself a disservice by dismissing a 2020 Sanders run.

— terrell jermaine starr, The Root, "Bernie Sanders’ Black Women Problem," 19 July 2017
But that would do a disservice to McCullers, who made his first start since June 8 after being on the disabled list due to lower-back discomfort but before that had been pitching as well as anyone in the major leagues.

— bob condotta, The Seattle Times, "Red-hot Mariners finally cool off in loss to Astros," 24 June 2017

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