disoblige
Americanverb (used with object)
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to refuse or neglect to oblige; act contrary to the desire or convenience of; fail to accommodate.
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to give offense to; affront.
to be disobliged by a tactless remark.
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to cause inconvenience to; incommode.
to be disobliged by an uninvited guest.
verb
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to disregard the desires of
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to slight; insult
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informal to cause trouble or inconvenience to
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of disoblige
1595–1605; < Middle French desobliger, equivalent to des- dis- 1 + obliger to oblige
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:
I am heartily sorry for it; for I declare, I would rather disoblige all the critics in the world than one of the fair sex.
From Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges by George Saintsbury
I wouldn't like to disoblige the young lady," he said; "but it's no use putting dead fish back into the stream.
From The Third Class at Miss Kaye's A School Story by Angela Brazil
We are so fond of, and pleased with the general Notion of seeing the Devil, that I am loth to disoblige my Readers so much as calling in question his Visibility would do.
From The History of the Devil As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts by Daniel Defoe
Worth's natural disposition to disoblige the lawyer could be depended on to keep from Cummings whatever information he wanted before giving us his own news.
From The Million-Dollar Suitcase by Alice MacGowan
"The Commune was desirous to leave them all liberty in the conduct of the military operations; it was as far from wishing to disoblige them as from wishing to weaken their authority."
From History of the Commune of 1871 by P. Lissagary
Next day he made two mistakes in the first bill, disobliged a customer by surly answers, and dated all his entries in the journal in a wrong month.
From The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 04 The Adventurer; The Idler by Samuel Johnson
The fellow, with a sort of dejection in his looks, asked me if he had disobliged me in anything?
From Memoirs of a Cavalier A Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, and the Wars in England. From the Year 1632 to the Year 1648. by Daniel Defoe
These particular friends who were not to be disobliged seem to have been shining lights of the Whig party.
From The Palmy Days of Nance Oldfield by Edward Robins
He is reported to be spiteful and malicious, even to the whole family of any single person who has once disobliged him; and to his own relations most of all.
From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 1 by Samuel Richardson
In the next place, he invariably disobliged, and refused the applications, of any persons on whose behalf he understood Lysander to be interested, and thus gradually undermined his power.
From Plutarch's Lives, Volume II by Aubrey Stewart
Granted, Sir Chris Bryant was almost as disobliging about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor 15 years ago, as an opposition MP, when there were calls then for him to be sacked as the government's trade envoy.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2026
A few are offering the odd disobliging word about Mr Dowden, suggesting he never wanted to be party chairman in the first place and was very disappointed to be demoted from being culture secretary.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2022
I sometimes wonder what it is that makes her get up in the morning and face the disobliging headlines and cartoons, and what it is is a very old-fashioned sense of public service.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 16, 2018
After such outlay, it was disobliging to score only 60 times in the league last season and City were a hindrance to themselves.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 22, 2011
It is a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
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.
