dissociate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb part; cease or break association with
    divorce; disjoint; disassociate; disunite.
    • She disassociated herself from the organization when she found out the identity of the president
  2. verb regard as unconnected
    decouple.
    • you must dissociate these two events!
    • decouple our foreign policy from ideology
  3. verb to undergo a reversible or temporary breakdown of a molecule into simpler molecules or atoms
    • acids dissociate to give hydrogen ions

WordNet

Dis*so"ci*ate transitive verb
Etymology
L. dissociatus, p. p. of dissociare to dissociate; dis- + sociare to unite, associate, socius companion. See Social.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Dissociated; present participle & verbal noun Dissociating
Definitions
  1. To separate from fellowship or union; to disunite; to disjoin; as, to dissociate the particles of a concrete substance.
    Before Wyclif's death in 1384, John of Gaunt had openly dissociated himself from the reformer. A. W. Ward.

Webster 1913