disown

/dis'oun/

Thân thiện

The father decided to disown his son after the argument.

Definition

1. Verb:
   • To refuse to acknowledge or accept any connection with; to deny responsibility for or affiliation with.
   • To reject or cast off, especially a family member or former associate.
   • In legal contexts, to deliberately prevent someone from inheriting, as by making a will.

Usage and Examples

• Verb:
  • The politician disowned the controversial statements made by his aide. (He denied any connection to or responsibility for the statements.)
  • After the scandal, his family disowned him. (His family rejected him and ended their relationship with him.)
  • She disowned her son after he was convicted of the crime. (She cast him off and no longer acknowledged him as her son.)

Advanced Usage

• Legal/Formal Context: The act of formally and legally rejecting a connection or obligation.
  • The founder disowned the company's new direction in a public letter. (He formally denied any connection to the company's new policies.)
• Inheritance: To explicitly exclude someone from receiving property or assets after one's death.
  • He disowned his nephew in his will, leaving him nothing. (He used his will to prevent his nephew from inheriting.)

Variants and Related Words

• Disownment (n): The act of disowning.
  • The disownment by his family left him completely alone.
• Repudiate (v): A formal synonym meaning to refuse to accept or be associated with.
  • The government repudiated the treaty.
• Renounce (v): To formally declare one's abandonment of a claim, right, or association.
  • He renounced his claim to the throne.

Synonyms

• Reject: To refuse to accept, consider, or submit to.
• Cast off: To discard or get rid of.
• Deny: To declare untrue; to refuse to grant or acknowledge.
• Abandon: To cease to support or look after.

Related Phrases and Phrasal Verbs

(Note: "Disown" is not typically used in phrasal verb constructions. Its meaning is contained in the single word.)

Related Idioms

• To cut someone off: To disinherit or end a relationship with someone, often a family member.
  • His father cut him off without a penny. (This is a common idiom for disowning, especially in terms of inheritance.)
• To turn one's back on someone: To reject, abandon, or refuse to help someone.
  • She felt her friends had turned their backs on her in her time of need. (This conveys a sense of rejection similar to disowning.)

Học thuật

Verb

1. cast off
   • She renounced her husband
   • The parents repudiated their son
2. prevent deliberately (as by making a will) from inheriting

Từ đồng nghĩa

• renounce
• repudiate
• disinherit