disembellish

English

Etymology

dis- +‎ embellish: compare French désembellir.

Verb

disembellish (third-person singular simple present disembellishes, present participle disembellishing, simple past and past participle disembellished)

1. (transitive) To deprive of embellishment; to disadorn.
   • 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Pure Reason”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book first, page 47:

     [G]ive it up, and weep, not that the reign of wonder is done, and God's world all disembellished and prosaic, but that thou hitherto art a Dilettante and sandblind Pedant.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “disembellish”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)