disown
Americanverb (used with object)
-
disowns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disowned,
past participle, past
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disowning
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disownsimple
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disownssimple
-
have disownedperfect
-
has disownedperfect
-
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
-
disownedsimple
-
had disownedperfect
-
was disowningprogressive
-
were disowningprogressive
-
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:
Just disown it and make a spectacle of disowning it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
"We disown his actions and we disown what he has done in every single way."
From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2025
“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
She had taken a job as a secretary and was living at home because her father had threatened to disown her if she moved out on her own.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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
His mother recognizes him, but he disowns her, declaring her mad, and by strength of will he compels the poor mother to renounce him.
From The Standard Operaglass Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas by Charles Annesley
It was an early and remarkable demonstration of Marsh’s working-class roots — a thing he never disowned — as well as his feminism.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
These IPP sentences were introduced for prisoners convicted of serious sexual or violent offences by Lord Blunkett when he was home secretary, and he has long since disowned them.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
He has disowned his previous Merkelism; as prime minister, he now champions Canada’s emergence as an “energy superpower” helping to restabilize the world and, not incidentally, Canada’s internal politics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
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
After her divorce, my grandmother's family essentially disowned her.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
Just disown it and make a spectacle of disowning it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
The families of both Abu Shabab and Al-Astal issued statements disowning them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2025
The trend is so pronounced that some Chinese activists have taken to making preemptive “if I lose my freedom” videos, disowning any future “confessions” they might be forced to make.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 22, 2021
However, the charity insisted it was not "disowning Sir Winston" and said its former name was "confusing to people and did not explain what we do".
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2021
I heard women reveal to men that the children they’d raised were not theirs and elderly parents inform grown sons and daughters that they were disowning them.
From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat
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.
