Other forms: disclosed, disclosing, discloses
To disclose something is to make known a fact that was being kept quiet. A company disclosing what it pays its directors, a seller disclosing the damp in the back bedroom, a witness disclosing who else was in the room that night.
It is a formal word and it lives around obligation: you disclose an interest, disclose your income, disclose a conflict, and failure to disclose is the phrase that gets people into trouble. The noun is disclosure, and full disclosure has slipped into ordinary speech as the thing people say before admitting something about themselves. A non-disclosure agreement, the NDA, is a promise not to disclose. There is a quieter, literary use for physically uncovering something: the curtain drew back to disclose an empty stage. In speech most people say reveal or let slip; disclose belongs to contracts, courtrooms and press releases.
1verbdiscloseTo make known something that was secret or private.
“The bank refused to disclose how many accounts were affected.”
2verbuncoverTo uncover something so that it can be seen.
“He lifted the cloth to disclose a tray of silver.”
synonyms: uncover, expose
Also accepted in games: reveal
Disclose is literally to un-close. Old French desclore came from Vulgar Latin disclaudere, built on Latin dis- and claudere, to close or shut, and Middle English took it as disclosen. The picture held: a thing was shut, you open it, and now everybody can see what was inside.
Latin
dis-
Vulgar Latin
disclaudere
Old French
desclore
Middle French
desclos
Middle English
disclosen
English, today
disclose
Built from
From Middle English disclosen, from Middle French desclos, from Old French desclore, itself from Vulgar Latin disclaudere, from Latin dis- + claudere (“to close, shut”) or as a variant of discludo (cf. disclude). by surface analysis, en + dis + close.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA