Meaning & use
disown
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To refuse to accept someone as your family member, especially a child, and end the relationship.
Grammar: Takes a person as object: disown a son or daughter.
Patterns
- disown someone
- disown a child
- disown someone for something
The father disowned his son after the scandal.
She was disowned by her family for marrying against their wishes.
He threatened to disown his daughter if she dropped out of college.
verbtransitive
To refuse to acknowledge a connection with something you created, said, or were responsible for.
Grammar: Takes a thing as object: disown a statement or a policy.
Patterns
- disown something
- disown a statement
- disown responsibility
The senator disowned the remarks attributed to him.
The company quickly disowned the advertisement.
He later disowned the book he had written.
Word forms
| third person singular | disowns |
|---|---|
| past tense | disowned |
| past participle | disowned |
| -ing form | disowning |
Common combinations
- disown a child
- It is rare for parents to disown a child completely.
- publicly disown
- The party publicly disowned the candidate's comments.
- be disowned by
- He was disowned by his wealthy relatives.
- threaten to disown
- She threatened to disown her son if he sold the house.
Synonyms and how they differ
- reject
- More general; you can reject an idea or an application, but disown suggests you once had a close bond with the person.
- renounce
- More formal and often used for beliefs or titles, while disown is mostly for family or responsibility.
- repudiate
- Very formal; it fits official statements or debts better than personal family situations.
- cast off
- Literary or old-fashioned; it can mean the same but sounds like something from a novel.
Opposites
Word family
- disowned adjective
- Having been rejected by one's family.
- disowning noun
- The act of refusing to accept someone.
- disownment noun
- The formal act of disowning someone.
Commonly confused: disown or disavow?
disown vs disavow
Disavow means to deny knowledge of or responsibility for something, often a statement or action, not a person.
Practice
After the argument, he ___ his brother and never spoke to him again.
Choose one answer.
The past tense 'disowned' matches the past time of 'after the argument' and 'never spoke'. 'Disowns' is present tense and would not fit the past narrative; 'disowning' needs an auxiliary like 'was'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “disown”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.