Dismantle

How to spell dismantle

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dismantle

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dismantle mean?

1. verbTo take something apart into its separate pieces, or to break down a structure or system.

Dismantle in a sentence

• The engineers had to dismantle the old machine before shipping it abroad.

• The new government promised to dismantle the failing welfare system.

Where does dismantle come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the Old French desmanteler, which literally meant to strip a building of its mantle, that is, to pull down its protective walls or fortifications. That verb was built from the prefix des- (here meaning 'to undo' or 'reverse') and mantel, a cloak or covering, which in turn descends from the Latin mantellum, meaning 'cloak'. English adopted it in the late 1500s, at first in the military sense of razing castles and ramparts so they could no longer shelter defenders. Over time the picture of stripping away a covering widened into the modern meaning of taking any structure or machine carefully to pieces. The same mantel root still sits inside the everyday word 'mantle', a cloak or covering, which is a handy reminder that to dismantle is to remove that protective layer.

How the word is built

• dis- (reverse, undo)
• mantle (covering, cloak)
• -e