disqualify
Americanverb (used with object)
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disqualifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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disqualified,
past participle, past
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disqualifying
present participle
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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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dis-
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"Stone Fox" by John Reynolds Gardiner
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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:
Unauthorized distributions can disqualify a plan, causing severe financial consequences, including immediate income taxes and any applicable penalties for employees on their vested balances.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026
The federal public defender’s office in L.A. had asked the judge to disqualify Essayli from participating in and supervising criminal prosecutions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
"Whenever we find out that there's something dubious or fishy about a couple, we disqualify them," he tells the BBC.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
Yet, under current regulations, such tattoos could disqualify recruits and subject active-duty personnel to discipline.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
This had better work, because if it doesn’t, Ranger Alford made it clear she’ll disqualify us.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
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
Instead, Campbell had been the victim of deception perpetrated by her co-trustee, Bianka Hellmich, who was disqualified from being a charity trustee for nine years.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
They were also disqualified from working with children and young adults.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
“A federal judge has a duty to sit where not disqualified which is equally as strong as the duty to not sit where disqualified,” then Associate Justice William Rehnquist wrote in 1972.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
Hall was also disqualified from driving for 12 months even though he did not have a licence at the time of the incident, and he was ordered to pay £272 costs.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
In fact, if Beatriz hadn’t been so busy being hateful and getting disqualified from the pageant, she probably would have won that award hands down.
From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles
Talarico has already faced AI-generated advertisements and baseless claims that he is vegan, an apparently disqualifying dietary choice in the barbecue-heavy southern state.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
She stoops to blackmail to force Nana to steal Ericka’s file from the headmistress’s office in the hope of unearthing some damning or disqualifying revelation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
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 changes range in scale and scope, from disqualifying immigrants from certain jobs to indefinitely pausing the processing of visa applications.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
In addition, I mentioned factors disqualifying big mammalian candidates for domestication, but I did not tabulate how many candidates are disqualified by each factor on each continent.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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