estrange
Americanverb (used with object)
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to turn away in feeling or affection; make unfriendly or hostile; alienate the affections of.
Their quarrel estranged the two friends.
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to remove to or keep at a distance.
The necessity for traveling on business has estranged him from his family.
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to divert from the original use or possessor.
verb
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to separate and live apart from (one's spouse)
he is estranged from his wife
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to antagonize or lose the affection of (someone previously friendly); alienate
Synonym Usage
Estrange, alienate, disaffect share the sense of causing (someone) to turn away from a previously held state of affection, comradeship, or allegiance. Estrange often implies replacement of love or belonging by apathy or hostility: erstwhile lovers estranged by a misunderstanding. Alienate often calls attention to the cause of antagonism or separation: His inconsiderate behavior alienated both friends and family. Disaffect usually refers to relationships involving allegiance or loyalty rather than love or affection: disaffected workers, demoralized by ill-considered management policies.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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estrangesimple
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estrangessimple
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have estrangedperfect
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has estrangedperfect
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am estrangingprogressive
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are estrangingprogressive
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is estrangingprogressive
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have been estrangingperfect progressive
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has been estrangingperfect progressive
Past
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estrangedsimple
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had estrangedperfect
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was estrangingprogressive
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were estrangingprogressive
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had been estrangingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of estrange
First recorded in 1475–85; from Middle French, Old French estranger; cognate with Portuguese estranhar, Spanish estrañar, Italian straniare, from Medieval Latin extrāneāre “to treat as a stranger,” derivative of Latin extrāneus “external, foreign, strange”; see extraneous
Explanation
To estrange people may sound like adding wobbly antennae and an extra eyeball to their faces. Really, estrange means to push apart people who were once close to each other and cause them to be like strangers. The verb estrange comes from the Old French estranger, "to treat like a stranger.” Estrange is often used when talking about family members who are no longer in contact with each other. Estrange can also mean "to keep at a distance or remove." With this sense, a writer can estrange readers by using too many big words your can talk about wanting to estrange the neighbor’s dog from your flowerbed. If you're looking for a synonym that is less “strange” but more “alien,” try alienate.
Vocabulary lists containing estrange
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Born a Crime
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"The Iliad" by Homer, Book 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:
Research shows that adults who estrange themselves from relatives often do so "with a great amount of care and consideration over time," she says.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
Translation was for him a ferrying across borders and a way of hearing one language estrange another.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
"Children who choose to estrange themselves aren't making a little decision on a whim," explained Joshua Stein, a researcher who tracks online trends, especially those that intersect with psychology and bioethics.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2024
Another reason I spend more time advising those who estrange vs. those who have been estranged?
From Washington Post ● Jun. 8, 2022
It strikes me, my dear, that you are doing your best to estrange your husband from you—if you speak to him as you are speaking now.
From The Story of Charles Strange Vol. 2 (of 3) A Novel by Wood, Mrs. Henry
She transforms herself from “a wild, hatless little savage” into a lady, which estranges her from her childhood companion and besotted admirer, Heathcliff, a foundling who lives with her family.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Ultimately, this thing is just another machine that estranges us from the ingredients that make up the food and drinks that we consume.
From Slate ● Nov. 15, 2018
He performs a vital service that nonetheless estranges him from the very people he’s duty-bound to defend, placeless in his own domain.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 26, 2018
Meekness, he said, “enables us to set aside everything that divides and estranges us, and to find ever new ways to advance along the path of unity.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 1, 2016
Though time estranges and fate disperses, We have HAD our loves and our loving mercies; Though the gifts of the light in the end are curses, Yet bides the gift of the darkness—sleep!
From Poems by Adam Lindsay Gordon by Clarke, Marcus Andrew Hislop
Rodgers also has been estranged from his parents and brothers for quite some time now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Among some 7,000 estranged parents surveyed in April a third believed their adult child’s therapist had influenced or recommended the decision to end the relationship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
The estranged prince and his family, including seven-year-old Archie and five-year-old Lilibet, will stay in a mixture of royal residences and private accommodation during the visit, the source confirmed to AFP.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
On 31 May this year, the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg asked the former first minister whether she knew about the expensive watches, pens and coffee machines bought by her estranged husband.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
I felt a tremor of excitement, as if I were about to meet an estranged friend with whom I longed to be reconciled.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
By estranging me from the world, derealization, paradoxically, makes it more real.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 14, 2022
But the path to that point, the means of establishing what an I.O.C. spokesman called a “parallel world” inside the Games, has had an unmistakably estranging effect.
From New York Times ● Aug. 7, 2021
At venues such as the Mudd Club, where he had his first solo exhibition, Tseng was not always dressed in his estranging costume.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 23, 2019
Lenz’s film reveals how Kusama’s life has been if anything more estranging than her obsessive work, and the ways in which one informs the other.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 23, 2018
His journey to Rome in the autumn of 1521 had the result of estranging him from the views of the Protestant leaders.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 1 "Evangelical Church Conference" to "Fairbairn, Sir William" by Various
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.
