disassemble

v., -bled, -bling, -bles.

v.tr.
To take apart: disassemble a toaster.

v.intr.

1. To come apart: The unit disassembles easily.
2. To break up in random fashion: The spectators began to disassemble.

disassembly dis'as·sem'bly n.

While addressing Amnesty International's allegation that the US abuses terror suspects, President Bush aimed for "dissemble" but hit "disassemble" instead; the Chicago Sun-Times took a satirical poke at his mistake:

"[Bush said], 'It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on... people that were held in detention, people who hate America, people that have been trained in some instances to disassemble – that means not tell the truth.'
All well and good. But there is much else going on in the world. What new steps, for example, should President Bush take to force North Korea to dissemble its nuclear weapons?"

Link: Everybody wants to fly their own flag

Posted June 2, 2005.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

verb

To take (something) apart: break down, dismantle, dismount, take down. See assemble/disassemble.

v

Definition: dismantle
Antonyms: assemble, put together

---

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - skille ad
v. intr. - skilles, opdeles

Nederlands (Dutch)
demonteren, uit elkaar halen

Français (French)
v. tr. - démonter, désassembler
v. intr. - démonter, désassembler

Deutsch (German)
v. - auseinandernehmen, abbauen

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - (μηχαν.) αποσυναρμολογώ (κν. ξεμοντάρω)

Italiano (Italian)
smontare

Português (Portuguese)
v. - desmontar

Русский (Russian)
разбирать

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - desmontar, desarmar
v. intr. - desmontarse, desarmarse

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - demontera

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
解开, 分解, 可拆卸, 可拆开, 分散

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 解開, 分解
v. intr. - 可拆卸, 可拆開, 解開, 分散

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 분리하다, 해산하다
v. intr. - 분리되다, 해산되다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 取りはずす, 分解する, 分解される, 散らばる

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يفكك, يتفكك, يبعثر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮פירק לחלקים‬
v. intr. - ‮התפרק לחלקים‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.