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Synonyms

disrobe

American  
[dis-rohb] / dɪsˈroʊb /

verb (used with or without object)

disrobed, disrobing
  1. to undress.


disrobe British  
/ dɪsˈrəʊb /

verb

  1. to remove the clothing of (a person) or (of a person) to undress

  2. (tr) to divest of authority, etc

"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

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of disrobe

1575–85; dis- 1 + robe; compare Middle French desrober


Explanation

When you disrobe, you take your clothes off. Before you go swimming, you should probably disrobe and put on a bathing suit. Everyone disrobes, before we take a shower, change our clothes, or go skinny dipping. To disrobe is simply to get undressed. You might disrobe in a dressing room to try on a tuxedo or disrobe before your karate class so you can put on your white karate gi. The word uses the prefix dis-, "do the opposite of," before robe, with its old fashioned verb sense of "clothe."

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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:

For “Leo Grande,” the choice to disrobe was hers, and though she made it with trepidation, Thompson said she believes “the film would not be the same without it.”

From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2022

“The fact that I have to prove I don’t have tattoos on my upper body, disrobe, quite frankly is a little humiliating,” Rhambo told The Times on Thursday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2021

If you find the skins difficult to remove, drop the fruit in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds, plunge in an ice bath and then they should be more easy to disrobe.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 20, 2021

Pell would only have gone to the sacristy to disrobe, and that was always done with the help of at least one other cleric.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 19, 2019

"I'm not enough of a gymnast to disrobe in a space six feet by two, and besides I thought something of this sort might occur."

From His Lordship's Leopard A Truthful Narration of Some Impossible Facts by David Dwight Wells

Sue Tilley was 35 years old and working in a London employment office when she disrobed and let British artist Lucian Freud paint her in the nude.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026

Cameras are likely to pan away as they did when Queen Elizabeth was disrobed of her cloak and jewellery during her televised coronation in 1953.

From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2023

He headed western U.S. congregations but was disrobed in a church trial last year after officials concluded he had mishandled funds.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 25, 2022

She was at home in her bathrobe, and during our conversation, she disrobed and changed into her day clothes.

From Slate ● Nov. 26, 2020

Fifine had fallen asleep on the rug before the fire, having peevishly declined the folly of being disrobed and put to bed in the daytime, to recuperate from the exhaustion attendant upon her first ball.

From The Story of Old Fort Loudon by Mary Noailles Murfree

But the disrobing has other benefits: A thick, sour miasma of pig excrement engulfs me as I make my way inside, and I’m glad I’ve left my clothes behind.

From Science Magazine ● Dec. 7, 2023

She delivered again, face stripped of makeup and disrobing from her couture to wear a simple black t-shirt and ripped jeans to perform "Hold My Hand" from "Top Gun."

From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2023

The leaving behind not just of my language but of my sense — however meager — of belonging was a divesting, a disrobing: It was both freedom and exposure.

From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2022

Later that day, the fresh tape on her temples would unstick in time for the scrubbing, disrobing, and de-wigging that must take place before Sarah can go home to her wife.

From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2019

In the latter state, he seemed a flimsy dingy-blond youth of medium height, fleshless and perhaps sunken-chested; disrobing revealed that he was nothing of the sort, but, rather, an athlete constructed on a welterweight scale.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

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