Meaning & use
disband
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To stop existing as a group, or to make a group stop operating, by sending its members their separate ways.
Grammar: With an object, someone ends the group: the mayor disbanded the committee. Without one, the group itself breaks up: the committee disbanded.
Patterns
- disband something
- something disbands
After twelve years on tour, the band decided to disband.
The council voted to disband the planning committee once its report was finished.
The troops were disbanded as soon as the treaty was signed.
verbintransitiveformal
To scatter or separate, as members of a crowd or an informal gathering do when they go home.
Grammar: No object; used mainly in older or literary writing: the crowd disbanded.
Patterns
- something disbands
Once the speeches ended, the crowd slowly disbanded and drifted down the hill.
The search party disbanded at dusk and everyone went home.
Word forms
| third person singular | disbands |
|---|---|
| past tense | disbanded |
| past participle | disbanded |
| -ing form | disbanding |
Common combinations
- disband a unit
- The army disbanded the unit after it lost most of its equipment.
- officially disband
- The group officially disbanded in March, though fans had expected it for months.
- decide to disband
- The club decided to disband when too few members were left to run it.
- be forced to disband
- The orchestra was forced to disband when its funding ran out.
- disband a committee
- The principal disbanded the committee after it failed to agree on anything.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dissolve
- Dissolve is the usual word for ending a parliament, company or partnership by formal or legal act, whereas disband suits groups of people like bands, armies and teams.
- break up
- Break up is more informal and is often used when members fall out, while disband sounds more official and planned.
- demobilize
- Demobilize applies only to armed forces being released from service, so it is much narrower than disband.
- scatter
- Scatter describes people hurriedly going in different directions, often from fear, and says nothing about a group formally ending.
Opposites
Word family
- disbandment noun
- the act of breaking up a group
- band noun
- a group of people or musicians
- band verb
- to join together as a group, as in band together
Commonly confused: disband or disperse?
disband vs disperse
Disperse means to spread out in different directions and can describe crowds, smoke or seeds; disband means a group formally stops existing.
Practice
After the scandal, the school board voted to ___ the ethics committee permanently.
Choose one answer.
Disband is the right verb for ending an organized group. Dismiss is used for sending away individual people, and disperse is for crowds that scatter, not committees that are closed.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “disband”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.