disown
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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disownsimple
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disownssimple
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have disownedperfect
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has disownedperfect
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am disowningprogressive
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are disowningprogressive
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is disowningprogressive
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have been disowningperfect progressive
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has been disowningperfect progressive
Past
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disownedsimple
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had disownedperfect
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was disowningprogressive
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were disowningprogressive
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had been disowningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disown
Explanation
To disown someone is to reject them. If you disown your brother, you refuse to have anything to do with him: not only do you not speak or have contact, but it's as if he's no longer related to you. When one person disowns another, it's because of some terrible argument or deep-rooted conflict. Although it's uncommon to disown another person, when it happens it's usually a family member who's cast off. Your mom might threaten to disown you after you drive her car into the mailbox, but she's probably not serious. Disown takes the root word own, meaning "to have or to hold," and adds the Latin prefix dis, "not" or "do the opposite of."
Vocabulary lists containing disown
The Prince and the Dressmaker
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Ship Breaker
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So Far from the Bamboo Grove
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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:
"We disown his actions and we disown what he has done in every single way."
From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2025
“You don’t know me, fool / You disown me, cool,” Ice-T snarls in the 1988 hip-hop gang treatise “Colors.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2024
“My family would disown me,” he told the network in an email.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 29, 2023
“His view is if it’s good for him at that moment, he’ll do it, and then if something bad happens, he’ll disown any responsibility for it,” the former governor said.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 16, 2023
“I ... I am afraid. Ladon will stop me. My sisters, if they found out. . . they would disown me.”
From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan
If the ships are falsely flagged or flagged to a country that disowns them, the tankers can be subject to U.S. jurisdiction while in international waters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
You can detect the traces of the predecessor in the inheritor, even if the inheritor disowns any knowledge of the inheritance.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 16, 2019
Nanjiani’s acceptance into his girlfriend’s family is equally fraught, even if no one disowns anyone.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 21, 2017
The new perpetual secretary of the Academie disowns the Druon changes.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2016
He who to me in days gone by Vouchsafed a boon with honours high, Dares now, a king, his word regret, And caitiff-like disowns the debt.
From The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Griffith, Ralph T. H. (Ralph Thomas Hotchkin)
About 10 years ago, when he first wanted to go public with the truth, his mother disowned him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
Her family tried to persuade her to come back, but when nothing came of it they disowned her, according to SK SOS.
From BBC ● Nov. 22, 2025
In her memoir, Erivo writes at length about her estrangement from her father, who disowned her when she was 16 after an argument in a London train station.
From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2025
But uncertainty surrounds the royal succession, with no public announcement of an heir to the current king -- among his seven children, four have been officially disowned.
From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2025
Despite their quarrels, there was a deep bond between her father and the brother he had once disowned.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
He was born in Los Angeles to a white American mother and a Japanese father, the latter effectively disowning him while he was still in the womb.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
The families of both Abu Shabab and Al-Astal issued statements disowning them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2025
The Jewish Community of Guatemala has issued a statement disowning the sect, describing it as foreign to its own organisation.
From BBC ● Dec. 23, 2024
Supporting her now does not require disowning a single position.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 20, 2022
I knew the stories of many bad sons and daughters who had angered their parents to the point of the disowning curse.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
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.
