Disown
[dɪs'əʊn] or [dɪs'on]
Definition
(verb.) cast off; 'She renounced her husband'; 'The parents repudiated their son'.
Inputed by Jane--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To refuse to own or acknowledge as belonging to one's self; to disavow or deny, as connected with one's self personally; as, a parent can hardly disown his child; an author will sometimes disown his writings.
(v. t.) To refuse to acknowledge or allow; to deny.
Checked by Horatio
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Disclaim, disavow, refuse to acknowledge.[2]. Deny, disallow.
Editor: Rebekah
Definition
v.t. to refuse to own or acknowledge as belonging to one's self: to deny: to repudiate cast off—n. Disown′ment.
Typist: Wilhelmina
Examples
- As if you could not sooner disown your own personality! Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Do you disown us? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- I have heard that she quite astonished her husband by the spirit which she exhibited in this quarrel, and her determination to disown Mrs. Becky. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Ryder stood glaring with a drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- If you grow fat I disown you. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Mr. Rochester, allow me to disown my first answer: I intended no pointed repartee: it was only a blunder. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Neither did the Rabbins disown such acquaintance with supernatural arts, which added nothing (for what could add aught? Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- He's disowned his own father. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- His mother's sister made a bad match--a Pole, I think--lost herself--at any rate was disowned by her family. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- So the patient work of the German schoolmasters was disowned, and the Hohenzollern declared himself triumphant. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- He looked piteously at my lord, who never spoke to him during dinner, and at the ladies, who disowned him. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned? Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Never for an instant did I dream of disowning her as my child. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- His own father therefore, disowns him for ever and ever, as a unnat'ral young beggar. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
Editor: Nettie