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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
disprove
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
disprove a theory (also refute a theoryformal) (= show that it is wrong)
▪ Later experiments seemed to disprove the theory.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
theory
▪ Personal reincarnation, of course, is something which it is impossible to prove or disprove, although theories and beliefs abound.
▪ There is an overwhelming abundance of practical evidence disproving this theory.
■ VERB
prove
▪ It is impossible to prove or disprove McIntosh's assertion.
▪ We know of no surveys that either prove or disprove this point.
▪ Incidentally, the argument that dinosaurs would have needed to keep their brains cool neither proves nor disproves endothermy.
▪ A scientific theory can not be proved but only disproved.
▪ Personal reincarnation, of course, is something which it is impossible to prove or disprove, although theories and beliefs abound.
▪ However, it can not be proved or disproved in any final way and is unavoidably a political statement.
▪ They can be neither proved nor disproved.
▪ Evidence can thereby be admitted to prove or disprove the existence of the element which has been deemed jurisdictional.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Only the government has information which can disprove these claims.
▪ She was able to produce figures that disproved Smith's argument.
▪ The existence of God is a question of faith, and therefore impossible to prove or disprove.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ However, the epicycle theory could never be formally disproved.
▪ In order to confirm or disprove the phenomena, certain criteria have to be decided in order for the theory to have any value.
▪ In the second place, the claim of rational thought to limitless applicability has been disproved.
▪ My urge to prove my sanity made me gabble, and my gabbling disproved my claim.
▪ The myth that the Legion took anyone was being rapidly disproved and I didn't want to be a victim of it.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Disprove

Disprove \Dis*prove"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Disproved; p. pr. & vb. n. Disproving.] [Pref. dis- + prove: cf. OF. desprover.]

  1. To prove to be false or erroneous; to confute; to refute.

    That false supposition I advanced in order to disprove it.
    --Atterbury.

  2. To disallow; to disapprove of. [Obs.]
    --Stirling.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
disprove

late 14c., from Old French desprover "refute, contradict," from des- (see dis-) + prover (see prove). Related: Disproved; disproving.

Wiktionary
disprove

vb. To prove to be false or erroneous; to confute; to refute.

WordNet
disprove

v. prove to be false; "The physicist disproved his colleagues' theories" [syn: confute] [ant: prove]

Usage examples of "disprove".

Its report, submitted in March last year, overwhelmingly disproved the charges that the medical experiments upon animals are immoral and unjustifiable.

Modern research has tended to disprove the idea that the old Germans held a Yule feast at the winter solstice, and it is probable, as we shall see, that the specifically Teutonic Christmas customs come from a New Year and beginning-of-winter festival kept about the middle of November.

But, indeed, while Hans Holbein may have been honest and humane enough to have been above such base suspicions, there is no trace of him which survives that goes to disprove the probability that he was a self-willed, not over-scrupulous man, if he was also a vigorous and thorough worker.

The refutation of the secessionists is in the facts adduced that disprove the theory of State sovereignty, and prove that the sovereignty vests not in the States severally, but in the States united, or that the Union is sovereign, and not the States individually.

If one were to disprove to you the existence of the afreets of Eastern tales, you would consider the whole argument concerning the reappearance of the departed upset.

Fred Hoyle and his colleague Chandra Wickramasinghe further eroded enthusiasm for panspermia by suggesting that outer space brought us not only life but also many diseases such as flu and bubonic plague, ideas that were easily disproved by biochemists.

In the spirit of garage dragons, it is much better, for those claims not already disproved or adequately explained, to contain our impatience, to nurture a tolerance for ambiguity, and to await - or, much better, to seek - supporting or disconfirming evidence.

If the medical theorist insists on being consulted, and we see fit to indulge him, he cannot be allowed to assume that the alleged laws of contagion, deduced from observation in other diseases, shall be cited to disprove the alleged laws deduced from observation in this.

Proprietary feelings are of course offended when a scientific hypothesis is disproved, but such disproofs are recognized as central to the scientific enterprise.

I will regard the whole story as being true, as I am not in a position to disprove it.

It was finally disproved by a series of articles of Armand Baschet, entitled 'Preuves curieuses de l'authenticite des Memoires de Jacques Casanova de Seingalt,' in 'Le Livre,' January, February, April and May, 1881.

A single data point -- even a single clutch of measurements -- could not usually prove or disprove anything, but it might later turn out to play a vital role in a chain of argument, even if it was only in the biasing of some statistical distribution closer to one hypothesis than another.

It is always possible to construct statements which can be neither disproved nor proved by deduction from the axioms.

In spite of every evidence to disprove them, the Earl of Chalgrove held Lord Holland’s maxims in high esteem, and blandly encouraged his heir to indulge in every extravagance that captured his erratic fancy, discharging his gaming-debts as cheerfully as he discharged the bills that poured in from his tailor, his coachbuilder, his hatter, and a host of other tradesmen who enjoyed his patronage.

His lordship, having received his congee, has departed— " The rattle of pebbles on the path below disproved his words as soon as they were spoken.