English Reference
Verb

disown

v.
B2 Upper Intermediate US /dɪˈsoʊn/ UK /dɪsˈəʊn/ dis·own UK spelling disowned, disowning, disowns Computing

v.to officially say that you are no longer related to someone, or to stop supporting a person or idea. In computing, it means to stop being the parent of a process so it can run on its own.

v.to formally renounce a relationship or responsibility; to cease being the parent of a process in a computing context. Transitive — requires a direct object.


SIMPLE

The family decided to disown him after he stole the money.

CONTEXTUAL

In Unix systems, a process can disown its child to allow it to continue running after the parent program has exited.

COMPLEX

The company chose to disown the controversial marketing campaign, issuing a public apology to distance the brand from the backlash it had generated among its core demographic.


From dis- + own.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Level B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency Occasional
Updated