Skip to main content
to disaffect

to disaffect

1 8.3
To make someone stop feeling loyal to a leader or group
  • verb
  • /ˌdɪsəˈfɛkt/
  • Formal
translation icon : desafectar
  • Exclusivist nationalism triumphed in Yugoslavia because it expressed the deepest yearnings and values of most of those who were disaffected from the communist regime.

Like if you do that, well, you're potentially intro's, you know, moving in an audience, moving a market, you're disaffecting big pharma.

Examples

  • Both Roof and Wuthnow, as religious studies scholars, acknowledge the religiosity of these unaffiliated spiritual seekers, disaffected from organized religious institutions but still asking and answering, in their own ways, the profoundly religious questions that have troubled humans through the ages.

    Academic text (2000)
  • At the same time, there is reason to believe that highly educated persons are also more likely to be disaffected from their political systems because their values are incongruent with the realities of politics in their societies; such persons are more demanding of political change and political reform than those of lower educational attainment.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Finally, in the northeast and especially in the Punjab, only small numbers of the local population were disaffected from the Indian state.

    Academic text (1997)
  • Maybe this one was merely somebody's Circle-Mage, disaffected enough to send along a request for a personal meeting.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Younger Kikuyu who had no access to land, along with displaced tenants and dispossessed squatters, became greatly disaffected.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Although the constitutional bargain gave the Kurds what they insisted on, it left many Iraqis, especially the Shiites, disaffected.

    Academic text (2004)
  • Simply devising student roles that are interactive within small-group settings does not guarantee success, especially among youngsters who are seriously disaffected by the schooling process.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Today, far less is expected of South Korea than in the past, thanks in part to Seoul's new leaders, who represent a younger generation of Koreans enamored of China, disaffected with the United States, and unafraid of the North.

    Academic text (2004)
  • Traversing reserves devastated by the epizootic, Blind Johannes proselytized in chiefdoms disaffected by the government's anti-rinderpest campaigns.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Many young voters feel disaffected by the current political system because they believe their voices are not heard.

Synonyms

to alienate
vsto disaffect
123 6.7

To make someone feel alone and lose support from others

focuses on reducing personal loyalty or affection rather than external isolation
to push people away
vsto disaffect
8 5.6

Act in a way that makes other people avoid you

focuses on causing reduced loyalty or support rather than accidental distancing behavior
to estrange
vsto disaffect
  • Formal
2 7.5

Make someone feel distant from family or friends

affects loyalty and support toward a person or cause rather than only closeness

Antonyms

1.0

Give help to a person or idea

How Alienated

to estrange
  • Formal
2 7.5
to alienate
123 6.7
to disaffect
  • Formal
1 8.3
sour
46 3.7
to distance
77 5.7

Surface Forms

disaffect infinitive
disaffecting present participle
disaffects third person singular
disaffected past participle

Morphology

disaffect = affect (semi-transparent) = dis + affect

Formally 'dis-' + 'affect' is a regular negating prefixation, but the meaning 'alienate' relies on an emotion/loyalty sense of 'affect' that many learners may not use productively.

Etymology

Disaffect comes from the parts dis- meaning 'not' and affect meaning 'feeling' or 'support', like in affection. So to disaffect someone is to make them stop feeling friendly or loyal toward a person or group.