disqualify
Americanverb (used with object)
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to deprive of qualification or fitness; render unfit; incapacitate.
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to deprive of legal, official, or other rights or privileges; declare ineligible or unqualified.
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Sports. to deprive of the right to participate in or win a contest because of a violation of the rules.
verb
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to make unfit or unqualified
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to make ineligible, as for entry to an examination
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to debar (a player or team) from a sporting contest
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to divest or deprive of rights, powers, or privileges
disqualified from driving
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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disqualificationnoun
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disqualifiernoun
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disqualifiableadjective
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nondisqualifyingadjective
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undisqualifiableadjective
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undisqualifiedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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disqualifysimple
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disqualifiessimple
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have disqualifiedperfect
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has disqualifiedperfect
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am disqualifyingprogressive
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are disqualifyingprogressive
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is disqualifyingprogressive
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have been disqualifyingperfect progressive
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has been disqualifyingperfect progressive
Past
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disqualifiedsimple
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had disqualifiedperfect
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was disqualifyingprogressive
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were disqualifyingprogressive
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had been disqualifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disqualify
Explanation
To disqualify someone is to not allow them to participate, or to make them unfit for participation. Turning eleven would disqualify a person from playing on a soccer team for kids ten and under. Judges will disqualify a marathon runner if they discover she's actually wearing roller skates, and a baseball player's age may disqualify him from playing on a certain team. Being blind disqualifies people from driving, and a criminal history can disqualify someone from working at a school. Disqualify adds the "do the opposite of" prefix dis- to qualify, which comes from the medieval Latin root qualificare, "to attribute a quality to."
Vocabulary lists containing disqualify
Power Prefix: dis-
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"Stone Fox" by John Reynolds Gardiner
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Because They Marched
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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:
Yet, under current regulations, such tattoos could disqualify recruits and subject active-duty personnel to discipline.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
Ricardo Fort, a sports marketing expert who previously led global sponsorship teams at Visa and Coca-Cola, said he doesn’t agree that a company’s industry should disqualify it from sponsorship deals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
RMDs can push you into a higher tax bracket, disqualify you from income-sensitive deductions and credits, and trigger higher Medicare premiums.
From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026
Doing the Roth instead would leave that 60-year-old with a higher adjusted gross income, which could disqualify the person from other tax breaks or push them into a higher tax bracket.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026
If that had been enough to disqualify participants, he’d have left Petey behind.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
The conviction disqualifies her from continuing on the bench under Wisconsin law.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026
They said his “egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2025
Nothing you do or say, no matter how bizarre, illegal, grotesque or insufferably stupid as it may be disqualifies you.
From Salon ● Nov. 28, 2024
The justices were asked to decide whether just one type of criminal history disqualifies a person from a lighter sentence, or whether all three must be present for a disqualification.
From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
The scorekeeper maintains a stern face, disqualifies the shooter.
From "Wringer" by Jerry Spinelli
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, leaning heavily on the founders’ own well-documented love of alcohol to argue that responsible substance use has never historically disqualified Americans from bearing arms.
From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2026
The court heard Taylor Grundy had two previous convictions and was currently under a community order for driving while disqualified and having no insurance.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
Some people in the video’s comment section speculated that Lindenthal’s shout-out may have indicated that the Wemby card had been tampered with in a way that should have disqualified it from being graded.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026
Indie game “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” was disqualified from an award show after people discovered that the game had utilized AI-generated graphical textures.
From MarketWatch ● May 23, 2026
Rowan had been disqualified and severely reprimanded for his poor sportsmanship.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
He'd always wanted to join the military like his grandfather and older brothers but unfortunately has a disqualifying heart condition.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
The Epstein files revealed a network that was hidden, vast and tied to clearly disqualifying conduct.
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026
It allows your assets to be used for your son’s benefit without disqualifying him from SSI.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 18, 2026
The factory pedals had been swapped out for motorcycle pegs, disqualifying it from being classified as an e-bike.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2026
“There was nothing on the audition flyer about the talent show disqualifying certain types of acts, right?”
From "The First Rule of Punk" by Celia C. Pérez
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.
