Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To free from a falsehood or misconception.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To free from mistake; undeceive; relieve from fallacy or deception; set right: as, it is our duty to disabuse ourselves of false notions and prejudices.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To set free from mistakes; to undeceive; to disengage from fallacy or deception; to set right; -- often used with of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To free (someone) of a misconception or misapprehension; to unveil a falsehood held by (somebody).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb free somebody (from an erroneous belief)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French désabuser : dés-, dis- + abuser, to delude (from Old French, to misuse; see abuse).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From dis- +‎ abuse.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Is the failure to disabuse yourself of science any more dangerous than the failure to disabuse yourself of philosophy, or mathematics, or logic, or psychology, or theology?

    (from: VVAA, The Interaction Between Science and Philosophy)

    September 22, 2008