disband

Attested since the 1590s, from Middle French desbander (Modern French débander), from des- (English dis-) + bande (English band),^[1] ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie”). By surface analysis, dis- +‎ band.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈbænd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænd

disband (third-person singular simple present disbands, present participle disbanding, simple past and past participle disbanded)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To break up or (cause to) cease to exist; to disperse.

   The president wanted to disband the scandal-plagued agency.

   I used to be in a punk band, but we disbanded in the early 1980s.

   • 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, , London: Adam Islip, →OCLC:

     Having taken a review of his Army at Ardachan, he disbanded his Army, and he himself continu'd his Journey to Erzirum

   • 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 53:

     The British Transport Commission, which was disbanded under the 1962 Transport Act that created the British Railways Board, had been established by Clement Attlee's Labour government at nationalisation 14 years earlier.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To loose the bands of; to set free.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To divorce.
   • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: , 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book:

     And therefore […] she ought to be disbanded.

• disbandment

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