displace

American  

[dis-pleys] / dɪsˈpleɪs /

verb (used with object)

displaces, present (3rd person singular) displaced, past participle, past displacing present participle

1. to compel (a person or persons) to leave home, country, etc.

2. to move or put out of the usual or proper place.

   Synonyms:

   relocate

3. to take the place of; replace; supplant.

   Fiction displaces fact.

4. to remove from a position, office, or dignity.

   Synonyms:

   dismiss, oust, depose

5. Obsolete. to rid oneself of.

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displace British  

/ dɪsˈpleɪs /

verb

1. to move from the usual or correct location

2. to remove from office or employment

3. to occupy the place of; replace; supplant

4. to force (someone) to leave home or country, as during a war

5. chem to replace (an atom or group in a chemical compound) by another atom or group

6. physics to cause a displacement of (a quantity of liquid, usually water of a specified type and density)

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Synonym Usage

Displace, misplace mean to put something in a different place from where it should be. To displace often means to shift something solid and comparatively immovable, more or less permanently from its place: The flood displaced houses from their foundations. To misplace is to put an object in a wrong place so that it is difficult to find: Papers belonging in the safe were misplaced and temporarily lost.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• displacer
  noun
• displaceable
  adjective
• undisplaceable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• displacing
  present
• displaced
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• displace
  simple
• displaces
  simple
• have displaced
  perfect
• has displaced
  perfect
• am displacing
  progressive
• are displacing
  progressive
• is displacing
  progressive
• have been displacing
  perfect progressive
• has been displacing
  perfect progressive

Past

• displaced
  simple
• had displaced
  perfect
• was displacing
  progressive
• were displacing
  progressive
• had been displacing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will displace
  simple
• will have displaced
  perfect
• will be displacing
  progressive
• will have been displacing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of displace

1545–55; dis- ¹ + place, perhaps modeled on Middle French desplacer

Explanation

When you displace something, you move it to a new position — either in a concrete sense, like moving a chair, or in an abstract sense, like firing someone from a job. Displace means to forcefully move or remove something — or someone — but it can also mean “to take the place of,” again, with some force. If your brother is sitting in your seat, you might say, “Get out of my chair! Don’t make me have to displace you!” Similarly, when a new employee is hired at work, she might displace the person who had the job before.

Example Sentences

Despite the green yard signs around town that read “Don’t Displace the South End,” the neighborhood is not against growth, said Gregory Davis, managing strategist of the Rainier Beach Action Coalition.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 5, 2021

And it forms the subtext of the most important book on China in years: Rush Doshi’s “The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order.”

From Washington Post • Sep. 16, 2021

"Displace, displace�they got our position!" he yells, as the troops vacate the open rooftop in a stooped sprint.

From Time Magazine Archive

Displace, dis-plās′, v.t. to put out of place: to disarrange: to remove from a state, office, or dignity.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

And of our power and authority thereby, Displace and Discharge you, the said Thomas Gilpin, from the place, Dignity, and office of Curate, Minister, or Priest in the said Chapell.

From The Annals of Willenhall by Hackwood, Frederick William

Related Words

• disturb
• evict
• expel
• force out
• lose
• uproot