disconnect
Americanverb (used with object)
-
disconnects,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disconnected,
past participle, past
-
disconnecting
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
disconnects,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disconnected,
past participle, past
-
disconnecting
present participle
-
to sever or terminate a connection, as of a telephone; hang up.
State your business and disconnect.
-
to withdraw into one's private world.
When social pressures become too great, she simply disconnects.
noun
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disconnects
plural
-
an act or instance of disconnecting, especially the suspension of telephone or cable TV service for nonpayment of service charges.
-
a lack of communication or agreement.
There is a huge disconnect between management and employees.
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disconnectsimple
-
disconnectssimple
-
have disconnectedperfect
-
has disconnectedperfect
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am disconnectingprogressive
-
are disconnectingprogressive
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is disconnectingprogressive
-
have been disconnectingperfect progressive
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has been disconnectingperfect progressive
Past
-
disconnectedsimple
-
had disconnectedperfect
-
was disconnectingprogressive
-
were disconnectingprogressive
-
had been disconnectingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disconnect
Explanation
When you disconnect something, you detach or separate it from something else. If you work plowing driveways during the winter, you need to disconnect the plow from your truck in the spring. You can disconnect toy train cars, and you can also disconnect your laptop from its charger. In fact, unplugging electrical appliances is another way to disconnect something. Disconnect also means a lack of understanding or connection. So there might be a disconnect between you and your brother, or between what a politician promises to do and what she actually does. Disconnect combines dis-, "the opposite of" with connect, from the Latin conectere, "join together."
Vocabulary lists containing disconnect
Vocabulary from the Poem “Touchscreen” by Marshall Davis Jones
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Flying Lessons & Other Stories
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Mexican WhiteBoy
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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:
And if there’s one person who has spent more time thinking about that disconnect than almost anyone else, it’s Dave Infante.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
I feel like there’s a disconnect in my brain between like what I think people know of me versus what reality actually is.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
One reason for that disconnect: Before the U.S.-Iran war, many investors had expected the Fed to lower interest rates this year to ensure the economy didn’t slip into a recession.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
When people change theirs, it can be a sign that they want to disconnect and disassociate from it, he adds.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
“People have been calling him all day demanding that he renew our lease. He had to disconnect his phone.”
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
“This space is on fire despite stock price disconnects YTD for basically all of AI semis,” Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes wrote on Friday.
From Barron's ● Mar. 9, 2026
Kill Switch Feature: This automatically disconnects your internet if the VPN connection drops, preventing your data from being exposed accidentally.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2026
A dispassionate prompt—one that reminds leaders of what they have agreed to—can make a real difference by highlighting disconnects and asking, “Are you OK with that?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2025
But “a switch goes off in a narcissist’s brain that disconnects them emotionally from you.”
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2025
And with that, he reaches up and disconnects our Link.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
The second of the two 706-megawatt reactors at Cernavodă was disconnected from the Romanian electricity grid just before midday on Thursday.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
“It was the most disconnected from my body I had ever felt,” she said.
From Slate ● Aug. 1, 2026
Although McCreary says that “Ekleipsis” is not disconnected from that universe, it is not strictly tied to a narrative.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
Not disconnected from the action it is trying to officiate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
They stepped inside the glass booth, picked up the receiver of the disconnected old phone, and began to talk to their missing loved ones.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
"I was bored sometimes, and that's okay," West recalled one recent evening at a city community garden where detox participants met to share their struggles and joys of disconnecting.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
Nor does it reckon with data on straight men’s growing acceptance of homosexuality or the role of technology in connecting and disconnecting people, or evidence of declining associational activities in general.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
"It's about taking yourself away from reality and disconnecting from advertising, marketing, social media, all those other things that we're surrounded with in life," she said.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2026
The “intention-action gap” is massive — 81% of Gen Z says they wish disconnecting were easier, but revealed-preference theory suggests we should only believe what they do, not what they wish.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 17, 2025
Just like Mommy did years before me, I began my own process of running, emotionally disconnecting myself from her, as if by doing so I could keep her suffering from touching me.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
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.
