disavow
verb
Dan Chu
Did you know?
When is a vow not a vow? When it has been disavowed, for one. Let’s say you make a solemn pledge to eat green vegetables every day of the week and twice on Sundays. If a few months down the cruciferous road you decide such a diet is for the rabbits, you might disavow (that is, repudiate or deny responsibility for) your earlier vow. Or perhaps you stick to it, going so far as to eat nothing but brassicas 24/7. Well, in that case, your local chapter of the Carnivore’s Club might illustrate another meaning of disavow by disavowing you (refusing to acknowledge or accept you) as a member any longer. Now when is a vow not avow? You might be surprised to learn that vow and avow/disavow are not related. Though all three words came to English from Latin via Anglo-French, they have distinct roots: vow comes from the Latin verb vovēre, meaning “to vow,” while avow and disavow trace back to the verb advocare, meaning “to summon.” We stand by it: there’s no denying that disavow has history.
Examples of disavow in a Sentence
Ryan Schwartz, TVLine, 24 Apr. 2025
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Rob Clapp: I’m invested in St. Paul.
—Imani Cruzen, Twin Cities, 5 Apr. 2025
Firestone’s past life as a feminist thinker is never directly disavowed in these stories—the movement is mentioned here and there—but it is kept on the sidelines.
—Audrey Wollen, Harpers Magazine, 28 Mar. 2025
Those remarks were instantly disavowed by both the State Department and the White House, whose representatives said that Mr. Wisner had been speaking in a personal capacity and that his views did not reflect official policy.
—Alan Cowell, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for disavow
Cite this Entry
“Disavow.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disavow. Accessed 16 May. 2025.
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disavow
verb
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