alienate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make indifferent or hostile.
By refusing to get a job, he has alienated his entire family.
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to cause to be withdrawn or isolated from the objective world.
Bullying alienates already shy students from their classmates.
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to turn away; transfer or divert.
to alienate funds from their intended purpose.
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Law. to transfer or convey, as title, property, or other right, to another.
to alienate lands.
verb
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to cause (a friend, sympathizer, etc) to become indifferent, unfriendly, or hostile; estrange
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to turn away; divert
to alienate the affections of a person
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law to transfer the ownership of (property, title, etc) to another person
Synonym Usage
See estrange.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have alienatedperfect
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has alienatedperfect 3rd person singular
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are alienatingprogressive
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has been alienatingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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alienatessingular 3rd person
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is alienatingprogressive 3rd person singular
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have been alienatingperfect progressive
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am alienatingprogressive 1st person singular
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alienatingparticiple
Past
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had alienatedperfect
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had been alienatingperfect progressive
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were alienatingprogressive plural
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alienatedparticiple
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alienatedsimple
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was alienatingprogressive singular
Future
Etymology
Origin of alienate
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin aliēnātus (past participle of aliēnāre “to transfer by sale, estrange”), equivalent to aliēn(us) “belonging to another, another's, foreign, alien ” + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
When you alienate people, you make them stop liking or caring about you. Show up at a conference of cat lovers with a sign around your neck that says, "I hate kittens," and you'll learn firsthand what that means. Back in the days of Latin, before the word alien came to mean little green men from outer space, it described something or someone that was foreign or different or not known: an alien custom, an alien nation. When you alienate people, you make them WISH you were an alien, or at least that they could send you to the moon.
Vocabulary lists containing alienate
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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The Devil's Arithmetic
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"Laws are not the only way to boost immunization”: an editorial from Nature
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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.
In doing so, he struck a delicate balance, as he had to shift production in a way that didn’t alienate Chinese consumers or cede market share to domestic Chinese competitors.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 21, 2026
As such, there's little to compare with the straightforward joy of Watermelon Sugar, or the keening desire of As It Was - but Styles isn't stupid enough to alienate his fanbase entirely.
From BBC • Mar. 4, 2026
Their baseless concern was that it would alienate English speakers.
From Salon • Feb. 9, 2026
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Surge, which is so grateful to have you as adoring readers but will sue you in North Carolina if you alienate your affection for us.
From Slate • Jan. 17, 2026
Without really meaning to, I manage to alienate everyone but the endocrinologists, and even some of them are put off by a remark I made concerning blood calcium levels in hypoparathyroidism.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
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.
