dismiss
/dɪsˈmɪs
/verb [with object]
1Order or allow to leave; send away: she dismissed the taxi at the corner of the road...
- Peremptory challenges allow a lawyer to dismiss a small number of potential jurors from the jury pool without giving a reason.
- Raising his arms, he gestured for the throne room doors to be opened and dismissed the court in order for everyone to attend the dinner that had been prepared in honor of the princesses.
- The Admiral had refused to listen to anything Marcus said, and eventually Marcus had been dismissed and ordered back for the tribunals.
Synonyms
send away, let go, release, free;
disband, disperse, dissolve, discharge, demobilize
1.1Remove from employment or office, typically on the grounds of unsatisfactory performance: the prime minister dismissed five members of his cabinet...
- It also recommends that specific grounds for dismissing members be included.
- They are also angered by company moves to dismiss five oil union members.
- Shortly after the report was published, a third faculty member was summarily dismissed on grounds of three days of unapproved absence.
Synonyms
give someone their notice, throw out, get rid of, discharge;
lay off, make redundant;
oust, expel
informal sack, give someone the sack, fire, send packing, kick out, boot out, defenestrate, give someone the boot, give someone the (old) heave-ho, give someone their marching orders, give someone the bullet, show someone the door
British informal turf out, give someone their cards, give someone the push, give someone the elbow, give someone the big E, bin off
North American informal give someone the air
Military cashier
1.2 [no object] (Of a group assembled under someone’s authority) disperse: he told his company to dismiss...
- The traveller ordered them to dismiss and went on his way, hoping that his luck would shine on him even more cheerfully.
1.3 Cricket End the innings of (a batsman or a side): Australia were dismissed for 118...
- England cruised to an innings and 27 runs victory over the Patron's XI yesterday after dismissing their opponents for a lowly 169 on the final day at the Rawalpindi Stadium.
- Yorkshire need to win this match to replace Surrey at the top of the table and they got off on the right foot by dismissing their opponents fairly cheaply after they had chosen to bat first on a good pitch.
- Leaders Beverley Town increased their lead when they inflicted a six-wicket defeat on Sessay after dismissing the home club for only 92.
2Treat as unworthy of serious consideration: it would be easy to dismiss him as all brawn and no brain...
- Certainly, American partisan politics are seldom addressed, and normally are only brought up in order to be dismissed.
- So, don't dismiss surfing as a sport for Hawaiians and Australians only.
- But dismissing your opponents as uneducable and unlearned by making dismissive remarks about the quality of their teachers serves no useful purpose.
2.1Deliberately cease to think about: he suspected a double meaning in her words, but dismissed the thought...
- The insidious history of this word cannot be dismissed easily.
- The mostly-bald monk merely smiled, and dismissed such words.
- She dismissed my words with a casual flick of her hand.
2.2 Law Refuse further hearing to (a case): the judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence...
- At the Crown Court on Friday, Ali's appeal against conviction and sentence was dismissed and he was ordered to pay a further 200 in costs.
- The public order offence was dismissed and the assault charges discharged.
- Kroon dismissed the application and ordered the applicants to pay the costs.
Derivatives
dismissible
/ adjective ...- According to Mr. Alterman's view, that makes pretty much anything I write dismissible - not because of what I say, but because of where I come from.
- Time may appear puzzling in the film, but Gondry offers many clues that appear in the form of minute, seemingly dismissible details.
- If these suggestions are implemented, even in phases, as financial allotments would allow, taking a bus will no longer be a dismissible option.
Origin
Late Middle English: from medieval Latin dismiss-, variant of Latin dimiss- 'sent away', from the verb dimittere.
missile from early 17th century:
The root of missile is a form of Latin mittere ‘to send’, found also in words such as dismiss (Late Middle English) and message. The earliest missiles were gifts, such as sweets, thrown to crowds by Roman emperors. From there the word came to mean, in the 1650s, an object which is forcibly propelled at a target—the modern sense of a rocket or similar weapon is first found in 1945. Mission (mid 16th century) is also from Latin mittere. Mission: Impossible was an American TV series that was first shown between 1966 and 1973, and in 1996 used as the basis of a film of the same name.