disembody

American  

[dis-em-bod-ee] / ˌdɪs ɛmˈbɒd i /

verb (used with object)

disembodied, disembodying

1. to divest (a soul, spirit, etc.) of a body.

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disembody British  

/ ˌdɪsɪmˈbɒdɪ /

verb

1. (tr) to free from the body or from physical form

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Other Word Forms

• disembodiment
  noun

Etymology

Origin of disembody

First recorded in 1705–15; dis- ¹ + embody

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

disembody disembodied disembodying

Febos said she chose to center the body in the title to help ground her and the book: to dispel the learned impulse to disembody our writing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2022

"It's an awakening perhaps, for the children - but unfortunately a stressful one, really deeply stressful, because it's a bodily experience. You can't disembody yourself to escape it."

From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2020

In fact, Gadsby rejuvenates standup by making a moral statement about the self-deprecation that allowed her to disembody her trauma.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 4, 2018

V. disperse, scatter, sow, broadcast, disseminate, diffuse, shed, spread, bestrew, overspread, dispense, disband, disembody, dismember, distribute; apportion &c.

From Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Roget, Peter Mark

Oh, if I could only disembody myself; fly back to London for a few hours; and listen invisibly to society talking about me.

From The Irrational Knot Being the Second Novel of His Nonage by Shaw, Bernard

A siren blares and a disembodied voice counts down: "Three, two, one".

From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026

By the end of the book, the reader appreciates even better how misleading it is to think of cellphone calls and the internet as a whole as occurring in an abstract elsewhere, a disembodied cyberspace.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 2, 2025

A startled-looking Macron backed up as disembodied hands smushed his face.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2025

“There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy,” says the disembodied voice.

From Salon ● May 17, 2025

Lio’s whispers were eerie, a disembodied voice from the dark interior of the car.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez

Mika Tajima gives form to the vague sense of unease many people feel in this disembodying digital era.

From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2024

"It kind of comes to life right in front of your eyes, and especially being able to have satellite footage and that kind of thing, it's really quite, almost a disembodying feeling."

From Reuters ● Jan. 18, 2022

Please understand that there was no talk of discharging me; no talk of demobilising me; no talk even of disembodying me.

From Punch or the London Charivari, Volume 158, March 24, 1920. by Various

It is worthy of remark that both lycanthropists and witches ascribed the power of disembodying themselves to the use of ointments.

From The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No II by Various

So he must find a way of disembodying and of attachment to some force swift as lightning, of which there are plenty in the spaces when the world has ceased to be a world.

From Among the Forces by Warren, Henry White