1
as in incapacitates
to cause severe or permanent injury to
a promising athlete who was severely disabled in a plane crash
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in paralyzes
to render powerless, ineffective, or unable to move
disabled the controls for unauthorized users
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of disables
Recently, researchers in Germany developed a chain-launching drone interceptor that disables UAVs by tangling their spinning rotors midair.
—
Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 8 May 2026
Imagining an eternity of this, Creasy disables his car’s braking system and drives into a concrete pylon.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 30 Apr. 2026
The Settings tab also enables and disables auto-transparency, which adjusts the lenses based on how much light the glasses detect, and auto-shutdown, which fully turns off the glasses when they're plugged in but aren't receiving an active signal, to help save the connected device's battery life.
—Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 29 Apr. 2026
Kids see a limited version of Roblox that removes riskier content and disables communication.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 15 Apr. 2026
The use of shock waves, or blast overpressure (BOP), kills or disables enemies with the force of the explosion, vaporizing the weapon’s plastic outer shell.
—Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 2 Apr. 2026
The intensity of the heat disables my phone for an hour.
—Noo Saro-Wiwa, The Dial, 24 Mar. 2026
Some even have an immobilizer that disables the ignition if thieves have a key.
—Jeff Wagner, CBS News, 24 Feb. 2026
For more information on why The Athletic occasionally disables comments on stories, please click here.
—James McNicholas, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2026
Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 8 May 2026
Imagining an eternity of this, Creasy disables his car’s braking system and drives into a concrete pylon.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 30 Apr. 2026
The Settings tab also enables and disables auto-transparency, which adjusts the lenses based on how much light the glasses detect, and auto-shutdown, which fully turns off the glasses when they're plugged in but aren't receiving an active signal, to help save the connected device's battery life.
—Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 29 Apr. 2026
Kids see a limited version of Roblox that removes riskier content and disables communication.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 15 Apr. 2026
The use of shock waves, or blast overpressure (BOP), kills or disables enemies with the force of the explosion, vaporizing the weapon’s plastic outer shell.
—Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 2 Apr. 2026
The intensity of the heat disables my phone for an hour.
—Noo Saro-Wiwa, The Dial, 24 Mar. 2026
Some even have an immobilizer that disables the ignition if thieves have a key.
—Jeff Wagner, CBS News, 24 Feb. 2026
For more information on why The Athletic occasionally disables comments on stories, please click here.
—James McNicholas, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for disables
Verb
-
Lorenzo confronts and incapacitates Pepe, Sonia’s main ally, before facing Sonia herself.—
Isabella Wandermurem,
Time,
24 Sep. 2025
Verb
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In fact, too much choice often paralyzes decision-making.—
David Meade,
Forbes.com,
14 May 2026
-
Once an octopus ambushes and bites its prey, the venom in its saliva paralyzes the prey, allowing the octopus to consume it.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
6 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
The author takes an overnight Amtrak journey instead of a flight to Washington as the government shutdown cripples Atlanta’s airport.—
Bill Barrow,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Mar. 2026
-
These pressures could produce a tsunami that fractures the state’s fiscal foundation, self-inflicts a crisis ultimately demanding drastic cuts, and cripples its competitiveness.—
Andrew Rein,
New York Daily News,
6 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Senator Cortese deserves credit for taking on the real and persistent inequity posed by the divide between basic and non-basic aid districts, and which genuinely undermines the principle that every student deserves the same quality education.—
Mercury News Editorial Board,
Mercury News,
27 May 2026
-
To some scholars of Christianity, such framing undermines some of Jesus' core ethical teachings.—
Brittney Melton,
NPR,
27 May 2026
Verb
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This storyline later appeared in the second season of Girls, as Dunham’s character Hannah is overwhelmed with the anxiety of writing a novel and similarly injures herself.—
Caitlin Huston,
HollywoodReporter,
14 Apr. 2026
-
In her desperation to ask Val for a job on the new sitcom, Sharon falls and injures herself.—
Louis Peitzman,
Vulture,
30 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
Organizations often assume that leaders working across contexts bring less focus and that divided attention weakens effectiveness.—
Henrik Totterman,
Forbes.com,
24 May 2026
-
Gravity weakens with the square of the distance between the two, so a star that was on the far side of the Milky Way from the edge-on collision point would feel a much less powerful gravitational attraction than a star on the near side would.—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
22 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Disables.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/disables. Accessed 30 May. 2026.
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