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:
She also said higher interest rates won’t dissuade hyperscalers but might influence companies in other industries.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026
So far that hasn’t happened, but experts argue the lack of accompanied public messaging could still dissuade some people from keeping up-to-date on their vaccinations.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
His family, he told Gandhi, had tried to dissuade him from going to the protest, but "I couldn't stop myself".
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Still, the herculean task didn’t dissuade us from asking five individuals from across the political spectrum to name the one thing they would change if they could do it with a magic wand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
It is likely that Hans never intended to involve Sophie in the White Rose resistance activities, but once she found out, he could not dissuade her.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
The program encourages fighters to lay down their arms and dissuades potential recruits.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 3, 2024
Mark Llewellyn Slade, the firm's founder, says that's because he dissuades people who don't stand much chance - and also because they've put in more than 1,500 applications and "learned what works and doesn't work".
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2023
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
"We expect slowing job growth in this sector as diminished loan availability dissuades restaurant operators and other smaller businesses from hiring new workers and opening new establishments."
From Reuters ● Mar. 30, 2023
‘Zacken, Gabeln, und wilde Klapperstöcke’ seem to force me to the big drum, but moderation dissuades me.
From The Standard Cantatas Their Stories, Their Music, and Their Composers by George P. (George Putnam) Upton
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
I had heard rumblings about the Korean Festival Foundation’s watch party, but once I found out it would take place at Seoul International Park, I was almost dissuaded entirely.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
This outcome secured the Caribbean for Britain and dissuaded the French and Spanish from a planned invasion of Jamaica.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
In recent years, companies have been dissuaded by the costs and complexity of being a public company subject to the SEC’s rules, Atkins said, including the requirement that companies report their earnings quarterly.
From Barron's ● Apr. 21, 2026
But Felicia would not be dissuaded from the orishas.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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
“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
At the same time, he said the lack of infrastructure, services and jobs was dissuading many Syrians who want to return home from doing so.
From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 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
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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.
