Other forms: disagreed, disagrees, disagreeing
To disagree is to think something different from someone else and say so. Two people in a kitchen arguing about whether the film was any good, or half a meeting shaking its head at the new plan.
It takes with for the person or the idea — I disagree with you, she disagrees with the ruling — and about or on for the subject: they disagree about money. It is milder than argue or quarrel; you can disagree politely, and when neither side will move, people say they will have to agree to disagree. Figures and accounts disagree too, when they fail to match. There is also a stomach use worth knowing: if food disagrees with you, it makes you feel ill — onions disagree with me. The noun is disagreement.
1verbdisagreeTo have a different opinion from someone, and say so.
“I disagree with almost everything he said, but I like him.”
2verbstatementsOf statements, figures or accounts: to fail to match.
“The two witnesses disagree about the time.”
3verbfoodOf food or weather: to make someone feel unwell.
“Shellfish disagrees with her.”
The parts are visible in the word: dis- undoing agree. English took it from Anglo-Norman disagreer, and in Middle English disagre meant to refuse to assent — to withhold your yes. The Old French relative went further and meant to be unpleasant, which is where disagreeable still lives.
Old French
desagreer
Anglo-Norman
disagreer
Middle English
disagre — to refuse to assent to
English, today
disagree
Built from
From Middle English disagre (“to refuse to assent to”), from Anglo-Norman disagreer, disagrer, desagreer (“to refuse assent”), from Old French desagreer, desagrëer (“to be disagreeable; to be unpleasant”) (modern French désagréer (“to displease”)); the English word is analysable as dis- + agree.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA