estrange
Americanverb (used with object)
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to turn away in feeling or affection; make unfriendly or hostile; alienate the affections of.
Their quarrel estranged the two friends.
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to remove to or keep at a distance.
The necessity for traveling on business has estranged him from his family.
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to divert from the original use or possessor.
verb
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to separate and live apart from (one's spouse)
he is estranged from his wife
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to antagonize or lose the affection of (someone previously friendly); alienate
Synonym Usage
Estrange, alienate, disaffect share the sense of causing (someone) to turn away from a previously held state of affection, comradeship, or allegiance. Estrange often implies replacement of love or belonging by apathy or hostility: erstwhile lovers estranged by a misunderstanding. Alienate often calls attention to the cause of antagonism or separation: His inconsiderate behavior alienated both friends and family. Disaffect usually refers to relationships involving allegiance or loyalty rather than love or affection: disaffected workers, demoralized by ill-considered management policies.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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estrangesimple
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estrangessimple
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have estrangedperfect
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has estrangedperfect
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am estrangingprogressive
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are estrangingprogressive
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is estrangingprogressive
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have been estrangingperfect progressive
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has been estrangingperfect progressive
Past
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estrangedsimple
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had estrangedperfect
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was estrangingprogressive
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were estrangingprogressive
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had been estrangingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of estrange
First recorded in 1475–85; from Middle French, Old French estranger; cognate with Portuguese estranhar, Spanish estrañar, Italian straniare, from Medieval Latin extrāneāre “to treat as a stranger,” derivative of Latin extrāneus “external, foreign, strange”; see extraneous
Explanation
To estrange people may sound like adding wobbly antennae and an extra eyeball to their faces. Really, estrange means to push apart people who were once close to each other and cause them to be like strangers. The verb estrange comes from the Old French estranger, "to treat like a stranger.” Estrange is often used when talking about family members who are no longer in contact with each other. Estrange can also mean "to keep at a distance or remove." With this sense, a writer can estrange readers by using too many big words your can talk about wanting to estrange the neighbor’s dog from your flowerbed. If you're looking for a synonym that is less “strange” but more “alien,” try alienate.
Vocabulary lists containing estrange
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Born a Crime
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"The Iliad" by Homer, Book 1
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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:
Research shows that adults who estrange themselves from relatives often do so "with a great amount of care and consideration over time," she says.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
Translation was for him a ferrying across borders and a way of hearing one language estrange another.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
García's film is about fathers and sons, and it certainly tackles the thorniness that can estrange children and their parents.
From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2022
I’m truly fearful he’ll get the idea that you estrange from a family member as easily as you throw away a napkin.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 24, 2021
In the four years and a half during which his ministry had lasted he had done much to estrange his party.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5 English History by Various
She transforms herself from “a wild, hatless little savage” into a lady, which estranges her from her childhood companion and besotted admirer, Heathcliff, a foundling who lives with her family.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
“I didn’t see her, and nor was she with her family … It breaks bonds and estranges people.”
From The Guardian ● Dec. 13, 2020
Ultimately, this thing is just another machine that estranges us from the ingredients that make up the food and drinks that we consume.
From Slate ● Nov. 15, 2018
Meekness, he said, “enables us to set aside everything that divides and estranges us, and to find ever new ways to advance along the path of unity.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 1, 2016
We feel kindly to them, but they draw back their hand from us; an antipathy estranges them, they pass us by.
From The Hallam Succession by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
In 1995, Keith starred in Next Of Kin as Maggie Prentice, a grandmother who made no secret of disliking her orphaned grandchildren when taking them in after the death of her estranged son.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
Molly Shannon, Ferrell’s frequent scene partner on “SNL,” plays the protagonist’s estranged wife.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
Trudeau, who split from his wife, Sophie, in August 2023, shares three children with his estranged spouse, all of whom are currently said to be living with their mother in Montreal.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 12, 2026
People she met included a widow estranged from her adult children over financial woes, who stored piles of their belongings at their mother's home.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
First, through some quirk of circumstance, he had become estranged from the religion and the folk culture of his race.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
“The Exhibit” wants to convey art’s power and mystique without estranging the uninitiated.
From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2023
By estranging me from the world, derealization, paradoxically, makes it more real.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 14, 2022
These are not cognitively estranging phenomena in the manner of cyberspace, for instance, the technical workings of which most of us simply don’t understand.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 6, 2019
That’s the disillusioned soul of the film, entrenching it within the cynicism of the 90s and estranging it from the hopeful revisionism of modern discourse.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 23, 2019
There is but one way you can possibly defeat her success, and that is by estranging her from the world, and withdrawing her from all intercourse with society.
From Sir Jasper Carew His Life and Experience by Lever, Charles James
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.
