disassociate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disassociatesimple
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disassociatessimple
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have disassociatedperfect
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has disassociatedperfect
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am disassociatingprogressive
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are disassociatingprogressive
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is disassociatingprogressive
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have been disassociatingperfect progressive
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has been disassociatingperfect progressive
Past
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disassociatedsimple
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had disassociatedperfect
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was disassociatingprogressive
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were disassociatingprogressive
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had been disassociatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disassociate
Explanation
It’s often said that we are the company we keep, so it makes sense to disassociate — or distance ourselves — from people whose behaviors and beliefs we do not wish to be connected to. To disassociate means to separate yourself from a person, group, or idea. For example, if you end a friendship with your long-time buddies because you value honesty and they do not, you are disassociating from them. This term often indicates an intentional effort to distance oneself from certain people, organizations, beliefs, or behaviors that are no longer acceptable to you so that you are no longer associated with them.
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:
In trying to disassociate herself from the scandal, Melania’s lack of acknowledgment of her husband’s ties to Epstein stands out as a confusing, but increasingly familiar, bit of cognitive dissonance.
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2026
And fair enough if someone wanted to look at the work, but I could not disassociate him naming from his work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
Another police officer, Richard Scott, who helped gather the bodies of those killed, told the inquiry he binned his blood-soaked clothing after his shift to try to "disassociate from the scene".
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2025
And once you — and I’m personalizing this now, because the film requires this of its audience — once you have these things, what are you willing to disassociate from in order to keep them?
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2023
The boys from the neighboring room flinched and took a quick step backward, trying to disassociate themselves.
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
"The production disassociates you with much of the feeling and heft of live performance."
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026
Notably, reformist President Mohammad Khatami’s foreign minister in 1998 said that the “government disassociates itself from any reward which has been offered in this regard and does not support it.”
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 13, 2022
If there’s a central theme to the collection, it’s that illness disassociates us from ourselves, even if we survive it.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 13, 2021
He added, “On a general level, Cryos disassociates itself from any form of serial sperm donation due to the importance of not exceeding national pregnancy quotas” in each country to which they send sperm.
From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2021
She had all the dewy, large-eyed softness of look that one reluctantly disassociates from innocence, and a degree of cold, grubby calculation which she mistook, flaunted about in fact, for chastity.
From A Woman of Genius by Austin, Mary Hunter
Critics have accused the family of using its philanthropy to whitewash its business practices, and museums such as the Louvre in Paris and the National Portrait Gallery in London have disassociated themselves from the family.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 22, 2024
“But sometimes I feel disassociated from the extreme left.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2024
But, as you detail, it's relatively new and cannot be disassociated from the history of the United States.
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2024
Celtic previously disassociated the club from the "entirely inappropriate" banners.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2023
He felt curiously disassociated from all that he had heard.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
Delevingne has previously spoken about struggling with depression and how she became "very good at disassociating from emotion completely".
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
She’s completely reverting back to being a little girl and doesn’t know how to deal with getting in trouble, and she’s not taking in what’s what’s going on; she’s completely disassociating.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
They can wield their power by disassociating with objectionable partners.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2022
The opposite — disassociating from losing teams — is known as “cutting off reflected failure.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2021
"This girl she come to the drawbridge and hollered—that's all I know!" said the sentry, disassociating himself from any trouble as completely as possible.
From The Suprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion With Those of General Napoleon Smith by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
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.
