DISBELIEVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does disbelieve mean? 

• DISBELIEVE (verb)
  The verb DISBELIEVE has 1 sense:

1. reject as false; refuse to accept

  Familiarity information: DISBELIEVE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISBELIEVE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they disbelieve    ... he / she / it disbelieves   
Past simple: disbelieved   
Past participle: disbelieved   
-ing form: disbelieving   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reject as false; refuse to accept

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

disbelieve; discredit

Hypernyms (to "disbelieve" is one way to...):

reject (refuse to accept or acknowledge)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "disbelieve"):

doubt (consider unlikely or have doubts about)

distrust; mistrust; suspect (regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Antonym:

believe (accept as true; take to be true)

 Context examples 

He received me in his usual fawning way, and pretended not to have heard of my arrival from Mr. Micawber; a pretence I took the liberty of disbelieving.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Even my own terrible experiences in Castle Dracula seem like a long-forgotten dream. Here in the crisp autumn air in the bright sunlight— Alas! how can I disbelieve!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Now, the coxswain's hesitation seemed to be unnatural, and as for the notion of his preferring wine to brandy, I entirely disbelieved it.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

My wife seemed to be as upset as myself, and I could see from the little questioning glances which she kept shooting at me that she understood that I disbelieved her statement, and that she was at her wits’ end what to do.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the first place, she persisted in disbelieving the whole of the matter; secondly, she was very sure that Mr. Collins had been taken in; thirdly, she trusted that they would never be happy together; and fourthly, that the match might be broken off.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)