Other forms: disabled, disabling, disables
To disable something is to stop it working. A switch turned off, a system shut down, a feature greyed out.
The technical sense is now the commonest by far, since disabling notifications, disabling a setting and disabling an alarm are everyday actions. There is a much older and heavier sense meaning to injure somebody permanently, which is where the adjective disabled comes from. That use of the verb about people is now largely avoided, since it describes a person as something done to them. The noun is disablement in a legal context.
1verbdisableTo stop a device or feature from working.
“He disabled the alarm before opening the door.”
From dis- + able.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA