disrobe
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
-
to remove the clothing of (a person) or (of a person) to undress
-
(tr) to divest of authority, etc
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of disrobe
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."
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
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
Monsignor Charles Portelli, who was the cathedral’s master of ceremonies in the 1990s, testified that he was always with Pell after Mass to help him disrobe in the sacristy.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2019
He then swaggered about on board in these till his fellow-pirates drenched him with buckets of claret, so that he had to disrobe and throw the garments overboard.
From The Pirates' Who's Who Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers by Philip Gosse
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
Mortals, too, shrink from, and are agitated by, and afraid of their nearest friends, if disrobed of flesh.
From Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism by Allen Putnam
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
If the animal is wearing a coat or sweater, the officer may subject the pet to a pat-down, but disrobing the animal is not necessary.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 24, 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
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
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
