disavowable


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dis·a·vow

 (dĭs′ə-vou′)
tr.v. dis·a·vowed, dis·a·vow·ing, dis·a·vows
1. To disclaim knowledge of, responsibility for, or association with: "The American communists ... promoted Roosevelt's reelection in 1944—although Roosevelt formally disavowed their support" (Donald A. Ritchie).
2. To assert to be wrong or of little value: "After 1920 his style changed almost completely, and he disavowed his early works" (Mary V. Dearborn).
[Middle English disavowen, from Old French desavouer : des-, dis- + avouer, to avow; see avow.]
dis′a·vow′a·ble adj.
dis′a·vow′al n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

disavowable

(ˌdɪsəˈvaʊəbəl)
adj
formal capable of being disavowed
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.disavowable - capable of being disavowed
deniable - capable of being denied or contradicted
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
As he shows I think fairly convincingly, the North Koreans could have a disavowable way of getting a radiological bomb or perhaps even a nuclear warhead into a United States port.
Remarks at the International Institute for Strategic Studies
The life interrupted before birth is like a thought interrupted, something disavowable, something whose successors annihilate it entirely.(11) If every intention had its mark, no thought would ever finish; thinking would turn entirely retrospective, transforming all succession into the occasion of countless erasures.
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This, presumably, is where two scholars in the field are heading, namely: Mathew Jones, with his "'Maximum Disavowable Aid': The United States and the Indonesian Rebellion, 1957-8" (English Historical Review 114 [1999]: 1179-1216); and David Easter, with his "British and Malayan Covert Support for Rebel Movements in Indonesia during the 'Confrontation', 1963-66" (Intelligence and National Security 14, 4 [1999]: 195-210).
Singapore and the Indonesian Revolution 1945-50: Recollections of Suryono Darusman
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