disable
part of speech
verb (disable, disables, disabled, disabling)
meaning for a pupil
1) To turn off a feature or machine so it does not work, for example in an app or a phone. tree →
2) To stop something or someone from working properly, often by damaging it. tree →
3) To cause someone to have a disability, through injury or illness. tree →
sense in the lessons
In computing lessons you disable a setting, sound or notifications; in safety, an alarm or a car can be disabled; in health topics an accident can disable a person; the adjective «disabled» names people with disabilities; phrases: «disable notifications», «disable the alarm», «disabled access».
examples
- Ask an adult to disable in-app purchases on the tablet. tree →
- The engineer disabled the alarm while he fixed it. tree →
- You can disable the sound in the game settings. tree →
- The storm disabled the power lines. tree →
- A bad fall disabled him for many months. tree →
- The thief tried to disable the camera. tree →
- Please do not disable the safety lock. tree →
note
Regular verb: disabled, disabling. Opposite: enable. Polite words: «disabled people» or «people with disabilities»; avoid old rude words like «cripple». A disabled toilet or parking space is for disabled people, not anyone.
In the corpora
- "Differently abled" means disabled; it is a polite, positive-sounding phrase.
- "Physically challenged" means physically disabled; it is mostly American.
- Brothers and sisters of disabled kids notice what others miss.
- Some words about disabled people are slurs that hurt deeply; telling a teacher is the right move.
- Disabled people campaigned for ramps and access, and rulers like the Mughal emperor Akbar showed long ago that respecting other faiths helps peace.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «disable» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.