dismantle
Americanverb (used with object)
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dismantles,
present (3rd person singular)
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dismantled,
past participle, past
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dismantling
present participle
-
to deprive or strip of apparatus, furniture, equipment, defenses, etc..
to dismantle a ship; to dismantle a fortress.
-
to disassemble or pull down; take apart.
They dismantled the machine and shipped it in pieces.
-
to divest of dress, covering, etc..
The wind dismantled the trees of their leaves.
verb
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to take apart
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to demolish or raze
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to strip of covering
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dismantlesimple
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dismantlessimple
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have dismantledperfect
-
has dismantledperfect
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am dismantlingprogressive
-
are dismantlingprogressive
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is dismantlingprogressive
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have been dismantlingperfect progressive
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has been dismantlingperfect progressive
Past
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dismantledsimple
-
had dismantledperfect
-
was dismantlingprogressive
-
were dismantlingprogressive
-
had been dismantlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dismantle
From the Middle French word desmanteler, dating back to 1570–80. See dis- 1, mantle
Explanation
To take something apart or down is to dismantle it. If you dismantle a computer to see what it looks like inside, you better know how to put it back together, or you might be looking at the inside of your room for awhile. Dismantle is a verb used for both physical things and ideas. You can dismantle a campground by taking down the tents and breaking apart the fire logs, or you can dismantle a government by going against its leadership and bringing down its rule. Often when you dismantle something, you take away its ability to work, as with a nuclear warhead, but you can also take apart decorative or non-working things, as when you dismantle a science-fair display or a city made of blocks.
Vocabulary lists containing dismantle
The Alchemist
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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A Long Way Gone
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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:
Some polymers contain bonds that microbial enzymes can attack, allowing bacteria to dismantle them into smaller molecules.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
But was it the singular experience that set a man on a decades-long mission to dismantle technological society?
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
Abia state police commissioner Wilfred Afolabi said the operation was part of an ongoing campaign to dismantle criminal hideouts in the state.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
Feve said the Romanian gangs’ decentralized nature makes them harder to dismantle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
“The Soviet government,” continued the announcer, “has issued a new order to dismantle the arms you describe as offensive, and to crate and return them to the Soviet Union.”
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
Unlike many recyclers, which melt electronic waste in bulk, the Royal Mint dismantles devices first.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
“Collaboration recovers children sooner, links investigation, dismantles trafficking organizations and holds traffickers accountable. A trafficker should never escape accountability because critical information was sitting in another agency’s database.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The move dismantles the bet on convergence Roberts made 15 years ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Justice Elena Kagan’s majority opinion on Monday dismantles that theory piece by piece.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
He dismantles the machine, stares into its circuits, lets his fingers trace the journeys of electrons.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Both systems has been run by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county joint powers agency in the process of being dismantled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026
Local residents are determined to see them dismantled or, at the very least, prevent more from being built.
From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026
The country has also dismantled its flat 5% royalty fee, replacing it with a sliding-scale model that climbs as high as 12% when global prices rise.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
When American forces discovered and dismantled the B8 reactor in 1945, it had never achieved criticality.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
In Cuba, crews of Soviet soldiers dismantled the missile sites.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
I surveyed the room; three tables over, a family was dismantling a Bloomin’ Onion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Gavin Pugh was dismantling a pylon in April 2022 when he unknowingly clipped his safety line to a section that was only secure at one end.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
But dismantling the people and expertise required to carry out their missions isn’t efficiency; it’s diminished capacity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
The attacks led to the war in Afghanistan, which lasted for 20 years after the invasion’s initial success in dismantling al-Qaida and removing the Taliban government.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
De Klerk began a systematic dismantling of many of the building blocks of apartheid.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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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.
