disown
Americanverb (used with object)
-
disowns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disowned,
past participle, past
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disowning
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disownsimple
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disownssimple
-
have disownedperfect
-
has disownedperfect
-
am disowningprogressive
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are disowningprogressive
-
is disowningprogressive
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have been disowningperfect progressive
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has been disowningperfect progressive
Past
-
disownedsimple
-
had disownedperfect
-
was disowningprogressive
-
were disowningprogressive
-
had been disowningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disown
Explanation
To disown someone is to reject them. If you disown your brother, you refuse to have anything to do with him: not only do you not speak or have contact, but it's as if he's no longer related to you. When one person disowns another, it's because of some terrible argument or deep-rooted conflict. Although it's uncommon to disown another person, when it happens it's usually a family member who's cast off. Your mom might threaten to disown you after you drive her car into the mailbox, but she's probably not serious. Disown takes the root word own, meaning "to have or to hold," and adds the Latin prefix dis, "not" or "do the opposite of."
Vocabulary lists containing disown
The Prince and the Dressmaker
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Ship Breaker
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So Far from the Bamboo Grove
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Just disown it and make a spectacle of disowning it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
"We disown his actions and we disown what he has done in every single way."
From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2025
“My family would disown me,” he told the network in an email.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 29, 2023
“His view is if it’s good for him at that moment, he’ll do it, and then if something bad happens, he’ll disown any responsibility for it,” the former governor said.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 16, 2023
We can navigate the flock freely, with the ability to protect or disown as we see fit.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
If the ships are falsely flagged or flagged to a country that disowns them, the tankers can be subject to U.S. jurisdiction while in international waters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
When Guida comes home alone, without her sailor but great with child, she is greeted with fury by her father, who disowns her, while her mother cowers in the background.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 13, 2019
He also excavates the star's psyche to reveal a vulnerable, anxious soul - who disowns his birth name, Farrokh Bulsara, but whose alter-ego only comes alive in the spotlight.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2018
Nanjiani’s acceptance into his girlfriend’s family is equally fraught, even if no one disowns anyone.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 21, 2017
A noteworthy point about this poem is that in one place the writer expressly disowns any concealment of his satirical intention.
From A Short History of French Literature by George Saintsbury
The King has five sons, but four by his second marriage were disowned in 1996 and have lived since then with their mother in the US.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
He has disowned his previous Merkelism; as prime minister, he now champions Canada’s emergence as an “energy superpower” helping to restabilize the world and, not incidentally, Canada’s internal politics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
In her memoir, Erivo writes at length about her estrangement from her father, who disowned her when she was 16 after an argument in a London train station.
From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2025
But uncertainty surrounds the royal succession, with no public announcement of an heir to the current king -- among his seven children, four have been officially disowned.
From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2025
Despite their quarrels, there was a deep bond between her father and the brother he had once disowned.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
He was born in Los Angeles to a white American mother and a Japanese father, the latter effectively disowning him while he was still in the womb.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
The families of both Abu Shabab and Al-Astal issued statements disowning them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2025
The trend is so pronounced that some Chinese activists have taken to making preemptive “if I lose my freedom” videos, disowning any future “confessions” they might be forced to make.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 22, 2021
However, the charity insisted it was not "disowning Sir Winston" and said its former name was "confusing to people and did not explain what we do".
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2021
I heard women reveal to men that the children they’d raised were not theirs and elderly parents inform grown sons and daughters that they were disowning them.
From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
