displace

[dis-pleys]

verb (used with object)

displaced, displacing 

1. to compel (a person or persons) to leave home, country, etc.

2. to move or put out of the usual or proper place.

   Synonyms: relocate

3. to take the place of; replace; supplant.

   Fiction displaces fact.

4. to remove from a position, office, or dignity.

   Synonyms: dismiss, oust, depose

5. Obsolete.,  to rid oneself of.

displace

/ dɪsˈpleɪs /

verb

1. to move from the usual or correct location

2. to remove from office or employment

3. to occupy the place of; replace; supplant

4. to force (someone) to leave home or country, as during a war

5. chem to replace (an atom or group in a chemical compound) by another atom or group

6. physics to cause a displacement of (a quantity of liquid, usually water of a specified type and density)

Other Word Forms

• displacer noun
• displaceable adjective
• predisplace verb (used with object)
• undisplaceable adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of displace¹

1545–55; dis- ¹ + place, perhaps modeled on Middle French desplacer

Synonym Study

Displace, misplace mean to put something in a different place from where it should be. To displace often means to shift something solid and comparatively immovable, more or less permanently from its place: The flood displaced houses from their foundations. To misplace is to put an object in a wrong place so that it is difficult to find: Papers belonging in the safe were misplaced and temporarily lost.

Example Sentences

Shelters have been opened for those displaced from their homes, and helicopters were flying to and fro to bring essentials to people cut off from the rest of the world.

Read more on Barron's

“The prior actions of the owner demonstrate a lack of commitment to reopen the park for its displaced residents.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

In theory, the displaced workers would shift into fields where their skills could be put to better use.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Some of the displaced are moving faster than others, with home designs submitted for city approval.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Residents described scenes of panic as dozens of families fled their homes under heavy gunfire, many of them displaced multiple times during the war.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• disturb 
• evict 
• expel 
• force out 
• lose 
• uproot