Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To refuse to believe or accept; reject.
- intransitive verb To withhold or reject belief.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To reject the truth or reality of; hold to be untrue or non-existent; refuse to credit.
- Not to believe; to deny the truth of any position; refuse to believe in some proposition or statement; especially, to refuse belief in a divine revelation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb Not to believe; to refuse belief or credence to; to hold not to be true or actual.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Not
believe ; to exercisedisbelief . - verb Actively deny a statement, opinion or perception.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb reject as false; refuse to accept
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I am outraged, shocked, in disbelieve that the US will sit by and allow the Gov't of Iran to disgrace and dishonor their citizens by demanding a $3,000 payment for the bullet that killed a relative before the Gov't will turn over the body to the family.
Obama: Iran still has a path to international acceptance 2009
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Perhaps Stalin et al. were also atheists, but a shared disbelieve is not quite the same thing as a shared (positive) believe.
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They have not said he was lying what they are in disbelieve about is the fact that he was so open and candid in his book.
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Perhaps Stalin et al. were also atheists, but a shared disbelieve is not quite the same thing as a shared (positive) believe.
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As long as religion does not threaten science and freedom, we should be respectful and tolerant because our freedom to disbelieve is inextricably bound to the freedom of others to believe.
hughstimson.org » Blog Archive » Michael Shermer, Of All People, On Tolerable Atheism 2007
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However, I don't "disbelieve" in new years resolutions by any means.
Archive 2010-01-01 annaelizabethh 2010
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That should have been 'disbelieve' not 'disbelief'
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However, I don't "disbelieve" in new years resolutions by any means.
tea time resolution annaelizabethh 2010
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For you therefore which believe is the preciousness: but for such as disbelieve, The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner; and, A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; for they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
The Epistles of St. Peter 1817-1893 1910
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I see an error in my comment above, namely 72% philosophy faculty "lean towards" atheism while 72% of NAS members "disbelieve", and 14% of philosophy faculty "lean towards" theism while 7% of NAS members "believe".
Popular Posts Across MetaFilter leibniz 2009
rolig commented on the word disbelieve
Recently, I have been seeing this word used to mean "to not be of the opinion": "I disbelieve that the Obama stimulus package will succeed." This usage seems strange to me and, as I said, fairly recent. Normally, I would say, "I do not believe" or "I disagree that". I am used to the sense, "doubt the veracity" of someone or something: "She disbelieved his protestations of love." But even that sounds strange to my ear (compared with "She did not believe ..."). To use "disbelieve" with a "that" subordinate clause seems really unusual to me. Have I been too long outside English-speaking lands?
January 16, 2009