disable
Americanverb (used with object)
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disables,
present (3rd person singular)
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disabled,
past participle, past
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disabling
present participle
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to make unable or unfit; weaken or destroy the capability of; incapacitate.
The detective successfully disabled the bomb.
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to impair or injure (a person or animal) physically or mentally.
The accident disabled him for life.
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to make legally incapable; disqualify.
Minors are legally disabled from entering into a contract.
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Digital Technology. to make (a device, system, or feature) unable to function; turn off.
Some of the car’s advanced safety features can be disabled.
verb
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to make ineffective, unfit, or incapable, as by crippling
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to make or pronounce legally incapable
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to switch off (an electronic device)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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disablesimple
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disablessimple
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have disabledperfect
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has disabledperfect
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am disablingprogressive
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are disablingprogressive
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is disablingprogressive
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have been disablingperfect progressive
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has been disablingperfect progressive
Past
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disabledsimple
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had disabledperfect
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was disablingprogressive
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were disablingprogressive
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had been disablingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disable
Explanation
When an injury disables someone, it leaves the person seriously hurt, probably for the rest of their life. If a car accident disables you, you are permanently limited in some physical way. Illness, as well as injury, can disable people: for example, diabetes disables some sufferers by leaving them blind or weakening their hearts. A completely different way to disable is to make something unusable or unable to work in a certain way. if you disable your smoke detector while you cook nachos in your smoky oven, it won't work until you reconnect the batteries.
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:
The lawsuit alleges that Snap, the parent company of disappearing messaging app Snapchat, failed to disable and warn its users about “dangerous” features used by predators.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
Anthropic was temporarily forced to disable access to its latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, last month after the U.S. government flagged them as a security threat.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 16, 2026
The government ordered Telegram to disable the editing function in India until June 30.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
However they will have to disable livestreaming, as that is included in the ban.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026
I needed to disable the Hephaestus chariot and get it out of the way, but I had to protect Annabeth, too.
From "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan
It disables specific growth enzymes in grass weeds, while the same enzymes in crops like soybeans remain unaffected.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
A "dark" vessel -- usually a tanker or cargo carrier -- deliberately disables or manipulates transponders in a bid to go undetected by public tracking systems like Kpler's MarineTraffic.
From Barron's ● Mar. 31, 2026
"Lack of support, lack of accessibility, that is what disables you."
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2026
Though infections are at a relative low these days, we're still dealing with COVID-19, which kills hundreds of Americans per week and disables countless others.
From Salon ● Mar. 14, 2025
Hemophilia is caused by a single mutation that disables a protein in the clotting of blood.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Medicaid cannot recover certain assets from a deceased beneficiary’s estate if the beneficiary is survived by a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child of any age.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
If you remarried after age 60 — or after the age 50 if you are disabled — as long as you were married for 10 years, you could claim survivor benefits.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
But it would impact disabled people more broadly too.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
She is now spending long periods working from home - but says she is lucky to be still able to do this but not all disabled people can.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
The evacuations begin, starting with women, children, the elderly, and the disabled.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
“When people have access to medical care through insurance, they tend to undertake activities that can help longevity, like better preventive care, better management of chronic and disabling conditions,” Cohen said.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
Instagram, which is owned by Meta, has been disabling accounts and taking down some of these pickup or prank videos for violating the platform’s rules against harassment and bullying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
"The problem is the industry has a very poor reputation of disabling games once they end support," said Scott Ross, co-founder of consumer rights group Stop Killing Games, following Rockstar's announcement.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Changes could include "disabling key addictive features such as 'autoplay' and 'infinite scroll' by default, implementing effective 'screen time breaks', and adapting its recommender system to make it less engagement-oriented", it added.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
I grew up victim to a disabling confusion.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
Definitions 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.
