dissuade
Americanverb (used with object)
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dissuades,
present (3rd person singular)
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dissuaded,
past participle, past
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dissuading
present participle
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to deter by advice or persuasion; persuade not to do something (often followed byfrom ).
She dissuaded him from leaving home.
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Archaic. to advise or urge against.
to dissuade an action.
verb
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(often foll by from) to deter (someone) by persuasion from a course of action, policy, etc
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to advise against (an action, etc)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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dissuadernoun
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dissuasionnoun
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dissuasivenessnoun
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predissuadeverb (used with object)
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dissuadableadjective
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dissuasiveadjective
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undissuadableadjective
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dissuasivelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dissuadesimple
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dissuadessimple
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have dissuadedperfect
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has dissuadedperfect
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am dissuadingprogressive
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are dissuadingprogressive
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is dissuadingprogressive
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have been dissuadingperfect progressive
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has been dissuadingperfect progressive
Past
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dissuadedsimple
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had dissuadedperfect
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was dissuadingprogressive
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were dissuadingprogressive
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had been dissuadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dissuade
1505–15; < Latin dissuādēre, equivalent to dis- dis- 1 + suādēre to recommend, urge, derivative of suād-, base of suāvis tasting agreeable; see suave
Explanation
When you dissuade someone, you convince that person not to do something: “When Caroline saw Peter's broken leg, she tried to dissuade him from going on the ski trip.” Remember the meaning of dissuade by comparing it to its more common relative persuade. The suade part that both words share has origins in the Latin root suadēre, meaning “to urge.” In the case of persuade, the prefix per- means “thoroughly,” intensifying “to urge” and giving persuade its meaning of “to convince.” Think of dissuade as the opposite of persuade: the prefix dis- reverses the action of the root, giving the meaning of not urging, in other words, convincing someone NOT to do something.
Vocabulary lists containing dissuade
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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Metamorphosis
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Expository Writing, List 1
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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:
At times, all he had to do to dissuade a would-be challenger was shoot them a menacing glance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
It reenacts the Prophet Abraham's stoning of the devil at three places where Satan is said to have tried to dissuade him from obeying God's command to sacrifice his son Ishmael.
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
If the person on the other end tries to dissuade you from talking to anyone else, or tries to tell you there’s no time, it’s a scam.
From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026
They also proposed displaying cigarette-style images at sunbed shops and tanning salons to dissuade people from using them.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
When Aureliano Serrador and Aureliano Arcaya, the two who arrived during the tumult, expressed a wish to stay in Macondo, their father tried to dissuade them.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
In the short term, there's probably little that can be done other than targeting those who are "price gouging" in the hope that it dissuades others.
From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2026
Walz told AP he hopes the Legislature will seek a compromise that includes fair pay for drivers but also dissuades the companies from leaving the market.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
It all builds to a standoff between Cornelius and Rosie Perez, who refuses to sign to his record label because he repeatedly dissuades her from consulting a lawyer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2023
A lack of enough childcare spots dissuades many working women from becoming mothers, he added.
From Reuters ● Jul. 5, 2023
Has not she who dissuades a ruler from an iniquitous measure done something toward saving his soul?
From The Catholic World; Volume I, Issues 1-6 A Monthly Eclectic Magazine by E. Rameur
He may have been dissuaded from imposing a toll, but this is the way he thinks, and this is how he defines U.S. interests.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026
Immigration raids and wildfires dissuaded tourists from visiting, and even Canadian tourists who typically make up the largest number of foreign visitors to California dropped 21%.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
"Second, and most important, the harassment by the British press has dissuaded them from ever cooperating with UK authorities or speaking with the British press."
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
While Walter Hunt’s daughter dissuaded her father from obtaining a sewing-machine patent, Elias Howe Jr.’s wife inspired her husband to get one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
The only time she dissuaded him was when he was about to destroy the daguerreotype of Remedios that was kept in the parlor lighted by an eternal lamp.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Hochman said last week that he wanted to thread the needle between punishing the illegal recording and not dissuading whistleblowers from coming forward.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
The debt struggles of Evergrande and industry peers including Country Garden, Vanke and Kaisa have had a severe impact on consumer confidence, dissuading many would-be homebuyers from making purchases.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
“When experience starts dissuading you from heading back out,” he writes, “it’s because you’ve grown old.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
I'm not the only skeptical of how the shallow manipulations of TikTok are dissuading people from having more meaningful, if more slow-moving, experiences in the real world.
From Salon ● Jan. 19, 2025
Had I succeeded in dissuading Hamlet from revenge?
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
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.
