DISENGAGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does disengage mean? 

• DISENGAGE (verb)
  The verb DISENGAGE has 3 senses:

1. release from something that holds fast, connects, or entangles

2. free or remove obstruction from

3. become free

  Familiarity information: DISENGAGE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISENGAGE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they disengage    ... he / she / it disengages   
Past simple: disengaged   
Past participle: disengaged   
-ing form: disengaging   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Release from something that holds fast, connects, or entangles

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

disengage; withdraw

Context example:

disengage the gears

Hypernyms (to "disengage" is one way to...):

let go; let go of; release; relinquish (release, as from one's grip)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "disengage"):

unlock (set free or release)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

engage (keep engaged)

Derivation:

disengagement (the act of releasing from an attachment or connection)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Free or remove obstruction from

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

disengage; free

Context example:

free a path across the cluttered floor

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "disengage"):

dig out (dig out from underneath earth or snow)

unclog (become or cause to become unobstructed)

loosen up; unstuff (cause to become unblocked)

disencumber; disentangle; extricate; untangle (release from entanglement of difficulty)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Become free

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

in neutral, the gears disengage

Hypernyms (to "disengage" is one way to...):

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "disengage"):

unlock (become unlocked)

declutch (disengage the clutch of a car)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Antonym:

engage (get caught)

Derivation:

disengagement (the act of releasing from an attachment or connection)

 Context examples 

I am always disengaged after four or five o'clock, and I have time early in the morning.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A great dark shadow disengaged itself and hopped out into the clear moonlight.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What right had he to come among us with affection and faith engaged, and with manners so very disengaged?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Then taking the disengaged arm of Mr. Darcy, she left Elizabeth to walk by herself.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He made a movement to disengage himself, but she clung more closely to him, shivering violently.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Amusing enough, if my mind had been disengaged; but I would have given the world to sit still.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Up and down went the long, shining blades, round and round they circled in curves of glimmering light, crossing, meeting, disengaging, with flash of sparks at every parry.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Back danced the youngster, disengaging himself in beautiful style, but with two angry red blotches over the lower line of his ribs.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Happy people, who enjoy so many living examples of ancient virtue, and have masters ready to instruct them in the wisdom of all former ages! but happiest, beyond all comparison, are those excellent struldbrugs, who, being born exempt from that universal calamity of human nature, have their minds free and disengaged, without the weight and depression of spirits caused by the continual apprehensions of death!

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)