Other forms: disassembled, disassembling, disassembles
To disassemble is to take a machine to bits in order. Disassemble the engine, carefully disassembled, disassemble for cleaning.
The order is what distinguishes it from breaking something apart — you disassemble in order to reassemble. Note dissemble, which looks similar and means to conceal your true feelings; the two are unrelated and often confused.
1verbdisassembleTo take a machine to bits in order.
“The mechanic disassembled the engine and laid every part out on the floor.”
disassemble is a taking apart.
Proto-Indo-European
*sem-
Medieval Latin
assimulō
Old French
assembler
Middle English
assemblen
English
assemble
English, today
disassemble
Built from
From dis- + assemble. assemble comes from Middle English assemblen, from Old French assembler, from Medieval Latin assimulō. From Middle English assemblen, from Old French assembler (“to assemble”), from Medieval Latin assimulo (“to bring together”), from ad- + simulō, from similis (“like, similar”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European sem- (“together, one”). a doublet of assimilate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA