湖边社【每日一词】disabuse - vt. 使省悟；解迷惑；释疑；矫正
Definition:
(transitive verb) to free from error, misconception, or fallacy (see FALLACY sense 1a)
was quickly disabused of the idea that anything had changed
Did you know?
Taken as a product of its parts, one might assume that disabuse means “to not abuse.” While the usage has changed over the years, that assumption isn’t entirely wrong. We know the verb abuse as a word with various meanings having to do with bad physical or verbal treatment, as well as incorrect or excessive use, but when disabuse first appeared in the 17th century, there was a sense of abuse, now obsolete, that meant “to deceive.” Francis Bacon used that meaning, for example, when he wrote in 1605, “You are much abused if you think your virtue can withstand the King’s power.” The prefix dis- has the sense of undoing the effect of a verb, so it’s logical that disabuse means “to undeceive.” English speakers didn’t come up with the idea of joining dis- to abuse all on their own, however. It was the French who first appended their prefix dés- to their verb abuser; our disabuse is modeled after the French word désabuser.
Synonyms
disenchant
disillusion
undeceive
Examples of disabuse in a Sentence
let me disabuse you of your foolish notions.
No one finds the idea of a Fenian assassin in hiding more romantic than Minnie, and Donal is flattered (and horny) enough not to disabuse her.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 13 Oct. 2023
The goal is not to isolate or encircle China but to disabuse any notion that Beijing could succeed in forming a cohesive anti-Western coalition that could fulfill China’s development and security requirements.
—Ryan Hass, Foreign Affairs, 24 Oct. 2023
That said, Singer’s indifference to coherence doesn’t entirely disabuse a viewer of staying the course.
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2023