disenable

American  

[dis-en-ey-buhl] / ˌdɪs ɛnˈeɪ bəl /

verb (used with object)

disenabled, disenabling

1. to deprive of ability; make unable; prevent.

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disenable British  

/ ˌdɪsɪˈneɪbəl /

verb

1. (tr) to cause to become incapable; prevent

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Other Word Forms

• disenablement
  noun

Etymology

Origin of disenable

First recorded in 1595–1605; dis- ¹ + enable

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

disenable disenabled disenabling

They meant also to distress us by accumulating our seamen in their prisons; and this they imagined would disenable us from manning our men of war, or sending out privateers.

From A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. Late A Surgeon On Board An American Privateer, Who Was Captured At Sea By The British, In May, Eighteen Hundred And Thirteen, And Was Confined First, At Melville Island, Halifax, Then At Chatham, In England ... And Last, At Dartmoor Prison. Interspersed With Observations, Anecdotes And Remarks, Tending To Illustrate The Moral And Political Characters Of Three Nations. To Which Is Added, A Correct Engraving Of Dartmoor Prison, Representing The Massacre Of American Prisoners, Written By Himself. by Waterhouse, Benjamin

But to be disenabled from walking in this situation was sure death.

From An interesting journal of Abner Stocking of Chatham, Connecticut detailing the distressing events of the expedition against Quebec, under the command of Col. Arnold in the year 1775 by Stocking, Abner

The arm with which I struck was presently disenabled, and it vanished away.

From The Witch of Salem or Credulity Run Mad by Carter, F. A. (Freeland A.)

I am constitutionally disenabled from that vice; for how can he be guilty of excess who never can get enough?

From The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 by Lamb, Charles

Age has overtaken me, and want, a more insufferable evil, through the change of the times, has wholly disenabled me.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 10, August, 1858 by Various

Even so, triggers surrounding a perpetration can frequently send the brain into a fight, flight, or freeze panic, disenabling a survivor to think clearly, never mind communicate coherently about their experience.

From Slate ● Feb. 15, 2018

This Order, therefore, may prove a nursing-mother to sects, but I shall easily show how it will be a step-dame to Truth: and first by disenabling us to the maintenance of what is known already.

From Areopagitica A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England by Milton, John

Related Words

• cripple
• debilitate
• disable
• disarm
• impair
• incapacitate
• mangle
• mutilate
• paralyze
• shatter