dispel
part of speech
verb (dispel, dispels, dispelled, dispelling)
meaning for a pupil
1) To make a feeling, fear, doubt or false belief go away. tree →
2) (less common) To drive away or scatter something, like fog or clouds. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and fact-checking, people dispel myths with evidence; in stories, a kind word dispels fear; phrases: «dispel a myth», «dispel fears», «dispel rumours».
examples
- The scientist dispelled the myth that goldfish have a three-second memory. tree →
- Her smile dispelled my worries. tree →
- The sun soon dispelled the morning mist. tree →
- The teacher tried to dispel rumours about the school closing. tree →
- Turning on the light dispelled our fear of the dark. tree →
- The facts dispelled any doubt. tree →
- We wrote a leaflet to dispel common myths about bats. tree →
- However, he soon perceived her melancholy, and in a thousand ways strove to dispel the cloud, but in vain. tree →
note
Double l in past forms: dispelled, dispelling. Spelling trap: only one «l» in dispel. Used with myths, fears, doubts, rumours, not with physical objects (you do not «dispel» a ball).
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «dispel» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.