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dispel

UK[dɪˈspɛɫ]US[dɪˈspɛɫ]
verbC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,124 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: dispelled, dispelling, dispels

To dispel is to drive away doubts, fears, or myths. Dispel the rumour, dispel any doubt, dispel the myth.

It takes things of the mind rather than physical objects — you dispel a fear and not a crowd — and it implies scattering rather than defeating. Dispel the myth is the fixed phrase in explanatory writing. Note that the Latin is dis plus pellere, to drive, the same root as expel and propel.

Definitions of dispel

  1. 1verbdispelTo drive away doubts, fears, or myths.C1

    “The doctor's calm, clear explanation dispelled all her fears about the operation.”

dispel is a driving away.

Also accepted in games: banish

Where it comes from

Latin dispellere is dis plus pellere, to drive. Expel, propel and compel come from the same driving.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *pel- (beat)

  2. Latin

    dispello — to disperse; to dispel

  3. Middle English

    dispelen

  4. English, today

    dispel

From Middle English dispelen, from Latin dispello (“to disperse; to dispel”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs

Practise this word

dispel in the wild

  • Males wrote Scapegoat Generation, a book that analyzes statistics to dispel myths about young people in the 1990s.

    Mike A. Males

  • When the Imperial High Priests tried and failed in their efforts to destroy the demon and dispel the Imperial household of its influence, they were at a loss.

    Hama yumi

  • To dispel the Boers from their position, the British Army led a two-pronged assault in the hills which the Boers occupied, forcing them to retreat.

    Battle of Elandslaagte

  • The novel was written to dispel myths about HIV/AIDS and celebrate the courage of child sufferers in Malawi.

    The Heaven Shop

  • HMS Friday is an urban myth concerning a disastrous attempt by the Royal Navy to dispel the superstition against sailing on a Friday.

    HMS Friday

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.