disoblige
Americanverb (used with object)
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to refuse or neglect to oblige; act contrary to the desire or convenience of; fail to accommodate.
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to give offense to; affront.
to be disobliged by a tactless remark.
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to cause inconvenience to; incommode.
to be disobliged by an uninvited guest.
verb
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to disregard the desires of
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to slight; insult
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informal to cause trouble or inconvenience to
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of disoblige
1595–1605; < Middle French desobliger, equivalent to des- dis- 1 + obliger to oblige
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:
Worth's natural disposition to disoblige the lawyer could be depended on to keep from Cummings whatever information he wanted before giving us his own news.
From The Million-Dollar Suitcase by Alice MacGowan
We are so fond of, and pleased with the general Notion of seeing the Devil, that I am loth to disoblige my Readers so much as calling in question his Visibility would do.
From The History of the Devil As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts by Daniel Defoe
I shall endeavour, lady, and fail in nothing that is in my power to disoblige you; for there is none more ambitious of your ill opinion than I. Plea.
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume 14 of 15 by Robert Dodsley
He disliked very much to disoblige her, as she belonged to one of the most distinguished families of Georgia, and had many influential relatives among the Secessionists.
From Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-'61 by Abner Doubleday
I will teach you to dare importune Mr. Gorgibus, and plague him with your absurdities!——Ah! my brother … ——Hold your tongue, I tell you.——I would not disoblige … —— … Be silent, rascal.——
From The Flying Doctor (Le Médecin Volant) by Charles Heron Wall
I would not have disobliged you for the price of two such mares.
From McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader by William Holmes McGuffey
In this, the populace thought he had acted the part of a man; but he much disobliged the tribunes, his colleagues, who regarded it as a piece of violent and presumptuous interference.
From Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans by Arthur Hugh Clough
He had disobeyed and disobliged his father, and the thought of this troubled him.
From The Home Mission by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
Till when, pray believe me, with respect and esteem, Your most obliged and disobliged at these blank endings—what have I done?
From The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 by Robert Browning
Possibly after I have disobliged him so much, he may be glad to have her so easily provided for, with money already raised; especially if he has a design to marry himself, as I hear.
From A Letter Book Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing by George Saintsbury
Granted, Sir Chris Bryant was almost as disobliging about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor 15 years ago, as an opposition MP, when there were calls then for him to be sacked as the government's trade envoy.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2026
She was suspected of suffering in silence, when silence is seen as weak or disobliging, and she was denigrated for it, her denials distrusted.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 9, 2019
"You know, the great British portraitist. He was jealous of the prices she commanded and in his work Oriental Tales he was most disobliging about her. Said she was feeble and vulgar!"
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2015
After such outlay, it was disobliging to score only 60 times in the league last season and City were a hindrance to themselves.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 22, 2011
It is a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
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.
