disembarrass
verbUK /ˌdɪs.ɛmˈbæɹ.əs/ · US /ˌdɪs.ɛmˈbæɹ.əs/
Etymology From dis- + embarrass. Possibly a calque of French désembarrasser. First attested in 1726 (sense 1).
1
To get (someone) out of a difficult or embarrassing situation; to free (someone) from the embarrassment (of a situation); (often reflexive) to relieve (someone of a burden, item of clothing, etc.).
- 1726, George Berkeley, letter to Thomas Prior dated 6 February, 1726, in The Works of George Berkeley, London: G. Robinson, Volume 1, p. xliv, […] I hope […] that you will have disembarrassed yourself of all sort of business that may detain you here, and so be ready to go with us […]
- He had now disembarrassed himself of his riding-dress, and walking up to his daughter, he undid the fastening of her mask.1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter X, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume I (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 268:
4 more examples
- Whatever was her meaning, her purpose seemed unalterably adopted ; at least, it was plain he had no power to shake it. He must therefore wait till the end of their short voyage, to disembarrass himself of his companion ; and, in the meanwhile, acting on the idea of her having harboured a misplaced attachment to him, he thought he should best consult her interest, and his own character, in keeping at as great a distance from her as circumstances admitted.1822, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 194:
- Cursing these quick retorts of the young gentleman to whom he was so true a friend, Mr. Harthouse disembarrassed himself of that interview with the smallest conceivable amount of ceremony […]1854, Charles Dickens, “Book 3, Chapter 2”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC:
- The forthright adolescent heroine of that book, wanting to know what is this thing “love” so vaunted in fiction and so warned against by her elders, hires a strapping young peasant to disembarrass her of her virginity.1979, Robert Alter, Carol Cosman, chapter 3, in A Lion for Love: A Critical Biography of Stendhal, New York: Basic Books, published 8 October 1986, →ISBN, Part 1, page 52:
- […] Pat, in another sense, had done nothing for him; Nick hadn’t liked his brand of cagey camp, and had been snotty and priggish with him: so that, more shamefully still, he felt subtly disembarrassed by the death, since it erased the memory of his own bad grace.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 11, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:
2
Obsolete To free (something) from complication.
- 1719, uncredited editor, A Collection of Tracts Concerning Predestination and Providence, Cambridge University Press, Preface, […] that we might disembarrass the Style as much as possible, we have taken the liberty to transpose Parentheses and other perplexed Passages, so as to clear and reduce them to continued Sentences.
- […] it was unanimously resolved to admit to the treaty, none but the principals in the war, and their acting allies. This exclusion of the neutral interests tended greatly to disembarrass and simplify the negociation, in all outward appearance.1764, John Entick et al., The General History of the Late War, London: Edward Dilly and John Millan, Volume 5, Book 6, p. 99-100:
2 more examples
- 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Dublin: Whitestone et al., Volume 1, Lecture 8, pp. 180-181, There is no doubt that, by abolishing cases, we have rendered the structure of modern Languages more simple. We have disembarrassed it of all the intricacy which arose from the different forms of declension, of which the Romans had no fewer than five; and from all the irregularities in these several declensions.
- We cannot altogether disembarrass ourselves of the suspicion that the informing spirit of the Promethean fire has not brought illumination to its interpreters.1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “IV. Prometheus”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 107:
3
Obsolete To disentangle (two things); to distinguish.
- 1751, William Warburton, commentary on An Essay on Man in The Works of Alexander Pope, London: J. & P. Knapton et al., Volume 3, p. 63, […] though it be difficult to distinguish genuine Virtue from spurious, they having both the same appearance, and both the same public effects, yet they may be disembarrassed. If it be asked, by what means? He replies […] By Conscience […]
- Derived terms
- disembarrassed, disembarrassment
- Related terms
- embarrassment