disallow

English

Etymology

From Middle English disallowen, desallowen, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman desalouer, Old French desalöer. By surface analysis, dis- +‎ allow.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪsəˈlaʊ/
• Rhymes: -aʊ

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

disallow (third-person singular simple present disallows, present participle disallowing, simple past and past participle disallowed)

1. To refuse to allow

   The prisoners were disallowed to contact with a lawyer.

2. To reject as invalid, untrue, or improper

   The goal was disallowed because the player was offside.

   • 2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     England will regard it as a measure of justice for Frank Lampard's disallowed goal against Germany in Bloemfontein at the 2010 World Cup - but it was also an illustration of how they rode their luck for long periods in front of a predictably partisan home crowd.

3. (UK, law, historical) to overrule a colonial legislation by the sovereign-in-privy council

Conjugation

Conjugation of disallow

infinitive	(to) disallow
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	disallow	disallowed
2nd-person singular	disallow, disallowest†	disallowed, disallowedst†
3rd-person singular	disallows, disalloweth†	disallowed
plural	disallow
subjunctive	disallow	disallowed
imperative	disallow	—
participles	disallowing	disallowed

^†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:prohibit

Related terms

• disallowance

Translations

to refuse to allow — see forbid

to reject as invalid, untrue, or improper

• Bulgarian: отхвърлям (bg) (othvǎrljam), не приемам (ne priemam)
• Dutch: afkeuren (nl)
• Finnish: hylätä (fi)
• German: nicht anerkennen
• Greek: απορρίπτω (el) (aporrípto), ακυρώνω (el) (akyróno)
• Russian: отверга́ть (ru) impf (otvergátʹ), отве́ргнуть (ru) pf (otvérgnutʹ), отклоня́ть (ru) impf (otklonjátʹ), отклони́ть (ru) pf (otklonítʹ)
• Spanish: rechazar como inválido, falso o impropio
• Swedish: döma bort