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
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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
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disconnectssimple
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have disconnectedperfect
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has disconnectedperfect
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am disconnectingprogressive
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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
It also meant that for the first time in the decade and a half since I first got a smartphone, I’d be forced to disconnect.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
“When you disconnect the stream from its floodplain and put it into a man-made channel, you lose all that habitat complexity, and you start to lose some of those species.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
This disconnect between math and gut instinct reveals that the game isn’t actually just about numbers — it’s about utility and regret, which has sparked an animated discussion in the comments.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
I disconnect Hangouts without waiting for Rabia to reply.
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
But when you start to focus on improving the metric, it often disconnects from the thing you actually care about underneath.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Surfshark includes a reliable kill switch that blocks traffic if the VPN disconnects, and, like NordVPN, it uses RAM-only servers and offers DNS leak protection.
From Salon ● Mar. 27, 2026
“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
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
It sends a current through me, and for at least a moment, disconnects me from my thoughts.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
There are several potential explanations for why the stock market has disconnected from GDP.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Singer-songwriter Kate Nash believes many English people are disconnected from parts of their own history, and her latest single is an attempt to start a conversation about why.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 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
The problem for me was that the cell service on my BlackBerry had somehow disconnected, never sending out my messages or downloading updates from others.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
"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
But the fear of missing out, or “FOMO,” that comes with disconnecting can be equally daunting, some say.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 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
While I’m old enough to know Carl’s disappearance had nothing to do with my mom leaving, there’s no disconnecting the two in my mind.
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
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.
