displace

[dis-pleys]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR displace ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object), dis·placed, dis·plac·ing.

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

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

to take the place of; replace; supplant: Fiction displaces fact.

to remove from a position, office, or dignity.

Obsolete. to rid oneself of.

Origin of displace

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

Related formsdis·place·a·ble, adjectivepre·dis·place, verb (used with object), pre·dis·placed, pre·dis·plac·ing.un·dis·place·a·ble, adjective

Synonyms for displace

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR displace ON THESAURUS.COM

2. relocate. 4. depose, oust, dismiss.

Synonym study

2. 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.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for displace

disturb, expel, lose, uproot, evict, transport, mislay, unsettle, eject, shift, transpose, misplace, dislodge, relegate, change, dispossess, derange, dislocate, disarrange, disestablish

Examples from the Web for displace

Contemporary Examples of displace

But as machines continue to displace humans in a range of fields, they may exacerbate our structural problems with jobs growth.
Robotic Technologies Could Aggravate the U.S. Problem of Slow Jobs Growth
Robert Shapiro
July 19, 2013
And yet stories of individual acts of kindness and bravery are beginning to displace the horror.
‘In the Face of Evil, Americans Will Lift Up What’s Good’
Eleanor Clift
April 18, 2013
As someone who rejects that view, play futurist for a second: What kind of technologies could displace the Internet?
The Internet Won’t Save Us: Evgeny Morozov’s Stand Against Technology Solutionism
Robert Herritt
March 5, 2013
The 40th mile of capacity will displace gasoline only on trips over 40 miles.
Electric Vehicles May Be the Green Car of the Future, But Hybrids Are the Green Car of the Present
Megan McArdle
January 24, 2013
The first mile worth of battery capacity added to the vehicle will displace gasoline every time you use it.
Electric Vehicles May Be the Green Car of the Future, But Hybrids Are the Green Car of the Present
Megan McArdle
January 24, 2013

Historical Examples of displace

Gates endeavored to displace Washington, but ruined himself in the attempt.
The Siege of Boston
Allen French
There was an interval of slight awkwardness, which Susy endeavored to displace.
A Waif of the Plains
Bret Harte
We floated like corks, we were so light, and so little water did we displace.
Wandl the Invader
Raymond King Cummings
The yellow newspapers thrive and displace all the others because he likes them.
Folkways
William Graham Sumner
The nation did not send them to displace, but to support me.
Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815, Vol. II
Fleury de Chaboulon.

British Dictionary definitions for displace

displace

verb (tr)

to move from the usual or correct location

to remove from office or employment

to occupy the place of; replace; supplant

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

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

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

Derived Formsdisplaceable, adjectivedisplacer, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for displace

1550s, from Middle French desplacer (15c.), from des- (see dis-) + placer "to place." Related: Displaced; displacing. Displaced person "refugee" is from 1944.