Disprove
[dɪs'pruːv] or [,dɪs'pruv]
Definition
(verb.) prove to be false; 'The physicist disproved his colleagues' theories'.
Checked by Gilbert--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To prove to be false or erroneous; to confute; to refute.
(v. t.) To disallow; to disapprove of.
Editor: Rae
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Confute, refute, show to be false.
Checker: Max
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See PROVE]
Editor: Wilma
Definition
v.t. to prove to be false or not genuine: to refute: (arch.) to disapprove.—n. Disprov′al.
Checked by Leroy
Examples
- If I had any fortune of my own, I would willingly pay it to any one who could disprove what you have told me. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- He did not believe a word of the story, and yet, how discredit or disprove it? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- The popular notion, also, that streams of flame were rushing along the pipes produced an impression that gas lighting must be very dangerous, which it required time to disprove. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- I am not prepared with any arguments to disprove them, and much better, cleverer fellows than I am go in for them entirely. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- What is to disprove that this tribe, instead of camping under palm groves in Asia, wandered beneath island oak woods rooted in our own seas of Europe? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- It is difficult to prove or disprove because it does not come to clear statement. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Name the authority, and make him name the man of whom I borrowed the money, and then I can disprove the story. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- When disproved, it is shown to have been a false supposition; when proved, it is no longer hypothetic. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- It will be verified or disproved at the trial. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- They are just the suspicions that cling the most obstinately, because they lie in people's inclination and can never be disproved. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- How could he say: Yes, if what your husband hints is true, or if you've no way of disproving it? Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- But in disproving the accuracy of the old laws of Aristotle the young scientist had raised a hornet’s nest about his ears. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
Edited by Ivan