FromMiddle Frenchdesmanteler, itself fromdes-(“dis-”),mantel(“coat”) +-er (verbal suffix).

• IPA^(key):/dɪsˈmæntəl/
• (UK)IPA^(key):[dɪsˈmæntʰəɫ]

• Audio(Southern England):

  (file)

• (Cockney)IPA^(key):[dɪsˈmænʔəɫ]
• (US)IPA^(key):[dɪsˈmæ̃nɾɫ̩],[dɪsˈmæ̃nɫ̩]
• Rhymes:-æntəl

dismantle (third-person singular simple presentdismantles,present participledismantling,simple past and past participledismantled)

1. (transitive, originally) Todivest, strip ofdress orcovering.
   • c.1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare],[…] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London:[…]Nathaniel Butter, […], published1608,→OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     This is most ſtrange, that ſhe, who even but now
     Was your beſt object, the argument of your praiſe,
     Balme of your age, moſt beſt, moſt deereſt,
     Should in this trice of time commit a thing
     So monſtrous, todiſmantell ſo many foulds of fauour,[…]

2. (transitive) Toremovefittings orfurnishings from.
3. (transitive) Totake apart; todisassemble; to take to pieces.
   • 2013 May 17,George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, inThe Guardian Weekly‎^[1], volume188, number23, page19:

     In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state isdismantled. Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax.

4. (transitive) Todisprove a discourse, claim or argument.
   • 2001, Jeffrey Morgan, “The Rhetoric of Hate”, inLearning for Justice, number20:

     If we candismantle hate rhetoric and explain why it is, in fact, illogical, is the language no longer dangerous?

• “dismantle” inWebster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary: Based on Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 7th edition, Springfield, Mass.:G[eorge] & C[harles] Merriam, 1963 (1967 printing),→OCLC.

• dentalism