dispel

From Middle English dispelen, from Latin dispellere (“to disperse; to dispel”).

• IPA^(key): [dɪˈspɛɫ]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: di‧spel
• Rhymes: -ɛl

dispel (third-person singular simple present dispels, present participle dispelling, simple past and past participle dispelled)

1. (transitive) To drive away or cause to vanish by scattering.

   Synonym: disperse

   The clouds and mist were soon enough dispelled by the sun.

2. (transitive) To remove (fears, doubts, objections etc.) by proving them unjustified.
   • 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01:

     It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. […]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.

• dispel a cloud
• dispel rumours
• dispel cares
• dispel doubts
• dispel illusions
• dispel objections
• dispel vapors

dispel (plural dispels)

1. An act or instance of dispelling.
   • 2008, Caitlin Kittredge, Night Life‎^[1]:

     “My dispel didn't work,” she said finally. “He wasn't a blood witch, Sunny,” I said.

• dispulsion

• spiled, diples, lisped, Spidle, disple, lipsed, pleids, Spilde