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:
“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
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 Fox News ● Feb. 26, 2019
Later, a curt attendee comes to lead her down a drab, darkened hall, ushers her into a room, locks the door, and asks Sawyer to empty her bag, hand over her phone and disrobe.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 21, 2018
And he called her women to disrobe her; and Helen fell to crying bitterly, and said, "Oh, I am a slave, I am a slave: I am bought and sold and handed about."
From The Ruinous Face by Hewlett, Maurice Henry
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
Chief Justice Varale also invoked Draupadi from the epic Mahabharat, who's saved by Hindu god Krishna when she's being disrobed, to advise women "to pick up arms as no god will come to protect you".
From BBC ● Dec. 26, 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
Death, which in her prosperous state was peculiarly abhorrent to her feelings, was now disrobed of terror.
From Ormond, Volume I (of 3) or, The Secret Witness by Brown, Charles Brockden
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
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
Although those encounters are described with raw detail, the narrator’s deliberate disrobing of his own psyche feels even more intimate.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 14, 2016
He felt that even in speaking in that way he would be indicating how hopeless he felt, thereby disrobing his soul to more shame.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
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.
