disable
verb
dis·able
| \ dis-ˈā-bəl
, diz-ˈā-\
, diz-ˈā-\
disabled;
disabling\ dis-ˈā-b(ə-)liŋ
, diz-ˈā- \
, diz-ˈā- \
Definition of disable
1a
: to make ineffective or inoperative
disable a bomb For victims of smartphone theft, the ultimate justice is hitting a button that disables the device, turning it into a worthless rectangular paperweight.— Heather Kelley … gene editing makes it possible to change or disable a single gene without changing the "meaning" of the rest of the genome.— Kat McGowan
b
: to impair physically or mentally : to cause disability in
Automobile accidents kill nearly 50,000 people each year. … Accidents maim or disable another 80,000.— Matt Clark and Mary Hager Diet-related Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease disable and kill people …— Mark Bittman
2
: to deprive of legal right, qualification, or capacity
… the injured party was released from the bonds of marriage; but the offender, during life, or a term of years, was disabled from the repetition of nuptials.— Edward Gibbon
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Other Words from disable
disablement
\ dis-ˈā-bəl-mənt
, diz-ˈā- \
noun
, diz-ˈā- \
noun
physical disablement
Nor does it tackle the disablement of any North Korean program to enrich uranium.
— Thomas Omestad
disabling
adjective
Bipolar disorder is one of the world's 10 most disabling conditions, taking away years of healthy functioning from individuals who have the illness.
— David J. Kupfer
This is a rare, disabling pain disorder in which ordinary sensation such as touch, warmth and coolness are perceived as painful and minor knocks are agonizing.
— Maia Szalavitz
Synonyms for disable
Synonyms
cripple, incapacitate, lame, maim, mutilate
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Examples of disable in a Sentence
a promising athlete who was severely disabled in a plane crash
disabled the controls for unauthorized users
Recent Examples on the Web
And to disable the democracy so people can rob it of its resources. — John Hammontree | Jhammontree@al.com, al, "Rev. William Barber on building a moral coalition in the South, comparisons to MLK," 5 Aug. 2019 Zoom says users have always had control over the option to disable video, as a setting made when making their first Zoom call. — Patrick Lucas Austin, Time, "A Flaw in Teleconferencing App Zoom Could Have Let Hackers Access Your Webcam. Here's How to Fix it," 9 July 2019 The Apple TV box has settings to disable tracking and the sale of personalized ads. — Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY, "Apple says it doesn't track you, but apps on iPhone sure do," 28 June 2019 Storfer soon realized that neither his co-workers nor his bosses, brothers Victor and Mark Congionti, had much expertise in writing computer programs to disable ransomware. — Renee Dudley, ProPublica, "The Trade Secret Firms That Promised High-Tech Ransomware Solutions Almost Always Just Pay the Hackers," 15 May 2019 The device will allow users to disable the camera and microphone with a single tap and to lock it with a numerical passcode. — Michael Liedtke, The Seattle Times, "Facebook wants people to invite its cameras into their homes," 9 Oct. 2018 Highway Patrol tried a handful of times to put out spike strips to disable Little’s vehicle, but Little drove into the northbound lanes of the highway to avoid hitting the spikes, authorities said. — Jared Gilmour, sacbee, "Fugitive sped past police spike strips. But he couldn’t outsmart this 1-lane bridge, California cops say | The Sacramento Bee," 5 Apr. 2018 Additionally, as The Guardian notes, while Amazon and Google allow customers to opt out of some uses of their recordings, Apple doesn’t offer a similar privacy protecting option, outside of disabling Siri entirely. — Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge, "Apple’s hired contractors are listening to your recorded Siri conversations, too," 26 July 2019 Mitchell is accused of manually disabling a safety alarm intended to prevent children from being left on the bus. — Julian Gill, Houston Chronicle, "Houston bus driver charged in toddler's death left another child on the same bus, prosecutors reveal," 24 July 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'disable.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for disable
disable
verb
dis·able
| \ dis-ˈā-bəl
\
\
disabled;
disabling
Kids Definition of disable
: to make unable or incapable
He disabled the computer system.
disable
transitive verb
dis·able
| \ dis-ˈā-bəl, diz-
\
\
disabled;
disabling\ -b(ə-)liŋ
\
\
Medical Definition of disable
: to impair physically or mentally : to cause disability in
Automobile accidents kill nearly 50,000 people each year. … Accidents maim or disable another 80,000.— Matt Clark and Mary Hager Diet-related Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease disable and kill people …— Mark Bittman
disable
transitive verb
dis·able
disabled;
disabling