disown

Every now and then some disgruntled fan will publicly disown his favorite team, then invite rival teams to suggest why he should support them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025

“My family would disown me,” he told the network in an email.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 29, 2023

Rishi Sunak had to disown them publicly, insisting Ukraine had always been grateful.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2023

In California, complaints have driven administrators at the Encinitas Union School District to disown a Disney villain-themed drag show occurring Saturday as part of a queer youth “Boo Bash.”

From Washington Times ● Oct. 27, 2022

I would have to back out of it, I would have to disown it.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

If the ships are falsely flagged or flagged to a country that disowns them, the tankers can be subject to U.S. jurisdiction while in international waters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026

You can detect the traces of the predecessor in the inheritor, even if the inheritor disowns any knowledge of the inheritance.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 16, 2019

Nanjiani’s acceptance into his girlfriend’s family is equally fraught, even if no one disowns anyone.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 21, 2017

The new perpetual secretary of the Academie disowns the Druon changes.

From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2016

And the man that could succor her enemies now, Even though on her soil he were born, Is so base, so inhuman, so false and so vile, That Virginia disowns him with scorn!

From Songs and Ballads of the Southern People 1861-1865 by Anonymous

The King has five sons, but four by his second marriage were disowned in 1996 and have lived since then with their mother in the US.

From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026

He has disowned his previous Merkelism; as prime minister, he now champions Canada’s emergence as an “energy superpower” helping to restabilize the world and, not incidentally, Canada’s internal politics.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026

Dagwood Bumstead was the scion of a rich family that disowned him when he married Blondie, a flapper — forcing him to take an office job under the irascible J.C.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2025

In her memoir, Erivo writes at length about her estrangement from her father, who disowned her when she was 16 after an argument in a London train station.

From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2025

“Me and Penelope supported Marion for ten years after his father disowned him. Marion was a mess right up until he died, but what can I say. His sister loved him.”

From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson

He was born in Los Angeles to a white American mother and a Japanese father, the latter effectively disowning him while he was still in the womb.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026

The families of both Abu Shabab and Al-Astal issued statements disowning them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2025

The Jewish Community of Guatemala has issued a statement disowning the sect, describing it as foreign to its own organisation.

From BBC ● Dec. 23, 2024

The trend is so pronounced that some Chinese activists have taken to making preemptive “if I lose my freedom” videos, disowning any future “confessions” they might be forced to make.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 22, 2021

He gave his head a little dubious shake, as if disowning responsibility for what he was about to tell me.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson