Disavow   (pronounced dis-uh-vow) verb


Definition

to deny or disclaim any knowledge of, association with, or responsibility for; disown; reject or repudiate.

Main Example

  • In a rare public dissent with the White House, Colin Powell disavowed the administration's position on affirmative action and said he supports the University of Michigan's admission policy. Most administration officials, including Condoleezza Rice, have described the weighting given to race by that university as "indiscriminate" and "extreme."

    Workplace Examples

  • It is clear that the two employees responsible for spying on our competitor were acting on their own. So, to minimize the flak we've been getting, we should immediately issue a statement completely disavowing their unethical behavior and promising legal action against the two.

  • No offense, but I'm going to have to disavow your plan. It's simply too different from what we agreed upon earlier and, as you know, it also conflicts with my views. I'd best submit my ideas, independently, to the VP.

    Other Examples

  • a CEO disavowing a failed project by placing blame for that investment on "the previous management"

  • employees protesting a decision to fill vacancies from the outside, saying it's a disavowal of the company's long-held practice of promoting from within

  • following a death threat, a witness's disavowal of a previously given testimony

  • in a Charlie Rose interview, the frequently quoted historian Bernard Lewis of Princeton comparing bin Laden with Hitler and saying, "while one comes right out of Islamic history and culture, the other is out of Christian history and culture; we can't simply disavow these offshoots--we have to recognize them for what they are: aberrations"

    © 2003 V.J. Singal

    This Month's Other Words

    Rumination
    Vituperative
    Predilection
    Sycophantic
    Intemperate and Temperate
    Disaffection
    Foment

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