Dispel

Definition: Dispel

Dispel

Verb

1. Force to go away; used both with concrete and metaphoric meanings; "Drive away potential burglars'; "drive away bad thoughts"; "dispel doubts"; "The supermarket had to turn back many disappointed customers".

2. To cause to separate and go in different directions, of crowds, for example; "She waved her hand and scattered the crows.".

Date "dispel" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

Note: Dispel \Dis*pel"\, transitive verb. [imperative past participle Dispelled; present participle verb or noun Dispelling.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Dispel

Synonyms: break up (v), chase away (v), disperse (v), dissipate (v), drive away (v), drive off (v), drive out (v), run off (v), scatter (v), turn back (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Destruction	Destroy; do away with, make away with; nullify; annual; sacrifice, demolish; tear up; overturn, overthrow, overwhelm; upset, subvert, put an end to; seal the doom of, do in, do for, dish, undo; break up, cut up; break down, cut down, pull down, mow down, blow down, beat down; suppress, quash, put down, do a job on; cut short, take off, blot out; dispel, dissipate, dissolve; consume.
Displacement	Unload, empty; (eject); transfer; dispel.
Nonassemblage Dispersion	Verb: disperse, scatter, sow, broadcast, disseminate, diffuse, shed, spread, bestrew, overspread, dispense, disband, disembody, dismember, distribute; apportion; blow off, let out, dispel, cast forth, draught off; strew, straw, strow; ted; spirtle, cast, sprinkle; issue, deal out, retail, utter; resperse, intersperse; set abroach, circumfuse.
Recession	Verb: repel, push from, drive apart, drive from; chase, dispel; retrude; abduce, abduct; send away; repulse.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Dispel

English words defined with "dispel": clear the air ♦ Dispelled, Dispelling ♦ To clear up. (references)

Specialty definitions using "dispel": Gunpowder ♦ no, Nor. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Healing Life's Deepest Hurts: Let the Light of Christ Dispel the Darkness in Your Soul (reference) Reclaiming Ourselves: How Women Dispel a Legacy of Bad Choices (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Their policy is, naturally, to dispel fear and to inspire confidence. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Author	Quotation
Quintus Septimius Tertullian	I must dispel vanity with vanity.
Tryon Edwards	To rejoice in another's prosperity is to give content to your lot; to mitigate another's grief is to alleviate or dispel your own.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Author	Date	Quotation
Miranda v. Arizona	1966	Unless adequate preventive measures are taken to dispel the compulsion inherent in custodial surroundings, no statement obtained from the defendant can truly be the product of his free choice. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Japan	To help dispel reluctance on the Japanese side, an introduction by a "go-between" typically serves to vouch for the reliability of both parties. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	GUNPOWDER, n. An agency employed by civilized nations for the settlement of disputes which might become troublesome if left unadjusted. By most writers the invention of gunpowder is ascribed to the Chinese, but not upon very convincing evidence. Milton says it was invented by the devil to dispel angels with, and this opinion seems to derive some support from the scarcity of angels. Moreover, it has the hearty concurrence of the Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture. Secretary Wilson became interested in gunpowder through an event that occurred on the Government experimental farm in the District of Columbia. One day, several years ago, a rogue imperfectly reverent of the Secretary's profound attainments and personal character presented him with a sack of gunpowder, representing it as the sed of the Flashawful flabbergastor, a Patagonian cereal of great commercial value, admirably adapted to this climate. The good Secretary was instructed to spill it along in a furrow and afterward inhume it with soil. This he at once proceeded to do, and had made a continuous line of it all the way across a ten-acre field, when he was made to look backward by a shout from the generous donor, who at once dropped a lighted match into the furrow at the starting-point. Contact with the earth had somewhat dampened the powder, but the startled functionary saw himself pursued by a tall moving pillar of fire and smoke and fierce evolution. He stood for a moment paralyzed and speechless, then he recollected an engagement and, dropping all, absented himself thence with such surprising celerity that to the eyes of spectators along the route selected he appeared like a long, dim streak prolonging itself with inconceivable rapidity through seven villages, and audibly refusing to be comforted. "Great Scott! what is that?" cried a surveyor's chainman, shading his eyes and gazing at the fading line of agriculturist which bisected his visible horizon. "That," said the surveyor, carelessly glancing at the phenomenon and again centering his attention upon his instrument, "is the Meridian of Washington." H
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Martin van Buren	1837-1841	We have seen time gradually dispel every unfavorable foreboding and our Constitution surmount every adverse circumstance dreaded at the outset as beyond control.
Gerald Ford	1974-1977	A major reduction in the growth of Federal spending can help dispel the uncertainty that so many feel about our economy and put us on the way to curing our economic ills.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Dispel" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 92.68% of the time. "Dispel" is used about 205 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	92.68%	190	22,288
Lexical Verb (base form)	3.9%	8	124,375
Noun (proper)	1.95%	4	175,879
Noun (singular)	1.46%	3	202,518
Total	100.00%	205	N/A

Expressions using "dispel": dispel all doubts ♦ dispel smb.'s illusions. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "dispel"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		davaris, shpërndaj (allocate, allot, apportion, bestrew, broadcast, clear, deal, deliver, deploy, diffuse, disband, disembody, dish, dish out, dispense, disperse, disseminate, dissolve, distribute, diversify, give out, give rise to, hand out, intersperse, ladle, lay, lay out, mete, part, put out, scatter, share, shed, whiffle, wipe), largoj (avert, avoid, brush away, brush off, call off, cast out, despatch, dislodge, dismiss, dispatch, divert, eliminate, estrange, freeze out, keep away, keep off, lead off, lift out, pack off, push aside, push away, push off, put off, relegate, remove, seclude, stave off, take away, turn, wean, whiffle). (various references)

Arabic		‏أزال (abstract, assuage, ax, axe, bulldoze, clear, clear away, declassify, dismantle, eliminate, enucleate, eviscerate, excise, obliterate, preclude, put aside, relieve, remove, rest, retrench, rid, rub, rub out, settle, slip, smooth, stave off, suppress, take away). (various references)

Bulgarian		разсейвам (disperse, dissipate, distract, illumine, lay, put off, quell, resolve, satisfy, scatter), прогонвам (clear out, drive away, exorcise, exorcize, run off, see off, shag, shoo, shut away), пропъждам (banish, dismiss, drive away, repel, shuffle out of). (various references)

Chinese		�"消 (give up on). (various references)

Czech		zaplašit (allay, banish, lay, quell, quieten, scare away, shoo, still), vyvrátit (confute, disprove, explode, falsify, rebut, refute), rozptýlit (amuse, banish, diffuse, disperse, dissipate, distract, divert, resolve, strew). (various references)

Farsi		طلسم راباطل کردن , دفع کردن (Ejaculate, Eject, Excrete, Exorcise, Quench, Raise, Repel, Repulse), برطرف کردن (Acquit, Eliminate, Loose, Rectify, Remove, Surmount). (various references)

Finnish		karkottaa (chase, deport, drive, drive away, drive on, expel, impel, shoo, turn out), haihduttaa (evaporate, vaporize), hälventää (disperse). (various references)

French		dissiper (disintegrate, disperse, divide), chasser (displace). (various references)

German		vertreiben (banish, chase away, chase off, dislodge, dispelled, distributes, drive away, drive off, drive out, expel, fend off, hound out, move, oust, repel, repulse, sell, to banish, to dislodge, to dispel, to drive away). (various references)

Greek		διασκορπίζω (disband, disperse, dissipate, scatter). (various references)

Hungarian		szétkerget, elûz (banish, chase away, eject, oust, put away). (various references)

Indonesian		mengusir (chase, eject, eveict, expell, extrude, frighten away), menghalau (banish, chase away, drive, drive away). (various references)

Italian		dissipare (consume, disperse, dissipate, drive away, misspend, squander, waste), disperdere (disband, disperse, dissipate, to scatter), scacciare (chase, drive away, drive out, expel, shut out). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		ディーゼル電気車 (daemon, daily news, day, day and date, day bed, day pack, day'n'date, dealer, debate, debug, debugger, decay, decentralization, deduction, deep, deep kiss, default, defender, Defender Plan, defense, definition, delay, delayed steal, delay-line, demand-pull inflation, deoxyribo, depletion, deregulation, deschooling, describe, descriptor, destination, destructor, detail, detector, Deus, developer, device, dictionary, dieldrin, diesel electric car, differential gear, differentiation, diffusion index, digital, digital camera, digital voltmeter, dilettante, dilettantism, dimension, diminuendo, dimple, dinghy, dinner, dinner dress, dinner jacket, dinner party, dinner set, dinner suit, dip, diploma, director, directory, disc jockey, disclosure, Discman, disco, disco sound, discography, disconnect, discontinue, discotheque, discount, discount sale, discount store, discover, discoverer, discrete, discussion, disinflation, disk, disk brake, disk jockey, diskette, diskless, diskman, Disney, Disneyland, dispatch, dispatcher, dispenser, displacement, display, disposer, disrupt, dissolve, distance, distortion, distribution, distributor, disturb, divertimento, divided skirt, divider, divot, French kiss). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ディスペル . (various references)

Manx		skeaylley (bestrew, breed, cast loose, demobilization, diffract, diffuse, diffusion, disband, discharge, dismiss, disseminate, dissipate, dissipation, dissolution, dissolve, draw apart, drop away, leakage, liquidate, looseness, release, resolution, resolve, run out, scatter, scattering, scramble, slacken, slackening, slip, spread, spreading, spring, sprinkle, sprinkling, undoing, unfix, unfurl, unfurling), imman ersooyl (drive away). (various references)

Norwegian		spre (diffuse, disperse, dissipate), jage bort. (various references)

Pig Latin		ispelday

Portuguese		dispersar (break up, disband, disject, dismiss, disperse, disposed, dissipate, distract, drive off, scatter), estação de expedimento, afastar (abate, alienate, avert, call away, depart, deviate, displace, distract, divergence, diverting, do away with, eliminate, estrangement, fend, get rid of, hold off, keep away, keep off, lay off workers, make away, move away, obviate, relegate, remove, repel, retire, rid, separate, wean, withdraw). (various references)

Romanian		spulbera (depolarize, dissipate, kill, scatter), risipi (broadcast, cast away, chase, chuck away, clear, consume, crumble, disappear, disperse, dissipate, quiet, remove, repel, riot, scatter, settle, solve, spend, sprinkle, squander, strew, throw away, vanish, waste), goni (banish, career, chase, course, dash, discard, dismiss, drive, flap away, Hunt, pack off, send, send away, shoo, start, sweep), împrãştia (bestrew, break, diffuse, disperse, disseminate, dissipate, distribute, effuse, exude, fling, propagate, scatter, shoot out, spill, split up, spread, sprinkle, straggle, strew, throw about, vanish). (various references)

Russian		рассеивать (diffuse, disject, disperse, dissipate, scatter). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		razvejati, rasterati (disperse, whiffle). (various references)

Spanish		dispersar (blow about, disperse, distract, entertain, scatter), disipar (clear up, destroy, disband, disintegrate, disperse, dissipate, dissolve, remove, scatter, settle), desvanecer (dissipate), barrer (broom, live down, rake, scavenge, sweep, sweep away). (various references)

Swedish		skingra (disband, disperse, dissipate, dissolve, resolve, satisfy), förjaga (chase away, dissipate, drive away, expel). (various references)

Turkish		defetmek (banish, beat off, drive away, fence off, fend off, fight off, pack, pack off, repel, send smb. packing, send to the rightabout, stave off, turn away, vamoose, vamose), dağıtmak (be on the loose, bestrew, break on, crack up, deal, deal out, decompose, deliver, demount, deploy, diffuse, disband, disject, disjoint, dismantle, dispense, disperse, disrupt, dissipate, dissolve, distribute, divert, Dot, drown, fling off, hand out, issue, litter, mete out, pass out, rag, rough up, ruffle, rumple, scatter, strew, tumble), gidermek (allay, appease, avert, clear, disperse, dissipate, efface, eliminate, fulfil, fulfill, gratify, iron out, obviate, quench, remove, repair, resolve, satisfy, slake, smooth away, smooth out, supply). (various references)

Ukrainian		розганяти (accelerate, chase), зникати (come off, die, die down, disappear, dissipate, evanish, go out of being, ooze, pass away, pass off, pass out, peter out, vanish, walk, wan, wear away). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	absterget, abstersit, dispellere. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "dispel": dispelled, dispelling, dispels. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Dispel" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ciespl, despa, Despax, desper, Deysel, diepe, dimpal, Diosnel, dipel, Dippel, disel, disepl, disipal, dispar, dispeal, dispell, dispey, displ, displex, dispo, dispur, disspell, Driskell. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "dispel" (pronounced di'spe"l)
4	-s p e" l	expel, misspell, spell.
3	-p e" l	compel, impel, lapel, propel, repel.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: lisped, sliped, spiled.
	Words within the letters "d-e-i-l-p-s"
	-1 letter: deils, delis, idles, isled, piled, piles, plied, plies, sidle, siped, slide, slipe, speil, spied, spiel, spile.
	-2 letters: deil, deli, dels, diel, dies, dips, elds, ides, idle, isle, leis, lids, lied, lies, lipe, lips, lisp, peds, pied, pies, pile, pled, plie, side, sild, sipe, sled, slid, slip, sped.
	-3 letters: del, die, dip, dis, eds.
	Words containing the letters "d-e-i-l-p-s"
	+1 letter: alipeds, despoil, dimples, diploes, dipoles, dispels, elapids, lapides, lipides, mispled, palsied, piddles, pleiads, slipped, speiled, spieled, spilled, spindle, spliced, splined, spoiled.
	+2 letters: clupeids, depolish, despoils, diploses, disciple, displace, displode, displume, dripless, eclipsed, euploids, glimpsed, helipads, impleads, implodes, impulsed, leporids, lopsided, misplead, palisade, parslied, pedicels, pedicles, piddlers, piebalds, pistoled, pleiades, ploidies, polished, poolside, sandpile, sepaloid, sideslip, spadille, speedily, spindled, spindler, spindles, spiraled, splendid, splinted, stippled, stipuled, sulphide, supplied, talipeds.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.