How to Use disengage in a Sentence

disengage

verb
  • Put the car in gear, and then slowly disengage the clutch while pressing on the gas pedal.
  • The two dancers moved together in a series of quick movements before disengaging and leaping apart.
  • If there is a malfunction, the gears will automatically disengage.
  • The seeds will disengage from the flower and fall to the bottom of the bag.
    Jessica Damiano, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Sep. 2022
  • Toward the end of the day, the armies disengaged and returned to their camps.
    Jacek Krywko, Ars Technica, 30 May 2024
  • Unclick your seat belt or open the car door, and the system disengages.
    Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 13 July 2018
  • And being disengaged isn’t the worst thing of all time.
    Jamie Samuelsen, Detroit Free Press, 10 May 2018
  • The gator was able to disengage itself from the net, much to the relief of the reptile and the TPWD crew.
    Shannon Tompkins, Houston Chronicle, 25 Oct. 2017
  • But if the lane markings fade or the road gets too twisty, the system will disengage.
    Csaba Csere, Car and Driver, 5 Nov. 2022
  • For now, the two growth rates—R&D and revenue—are disengaged.
    Kristin Broughton, WSJ, 14 Dec. 2023
  • These tools disengage when the foot pound limit to which they have been set is reached.
    Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 29 June 2023
  • Still, no Democrat can be seen to be disengaged in the quest to keep Biden in office.
    Philip Elliott, TIME, 1 July 2024
  • Needs to do a better job disengaging and against the run.
    The Kansas City Star, kansascity.com, 27 Apr. 2017
  • Pull the tab on the release to disengage the lines, and the kite will fall harmlessly into the water.
    Cameron Johnson, Popular Mechanics, 24 June 2016
  • The guard disengaged, police said, and the suspect got in his truck and crashed into him.
    Jim Ryan, OregonLive.com, 17 July 2017
  • June is caught off guard by this attack and cannot disengage.
    refinery29.com, 20 June 2018
  • This helps them disengage from the barking and get their mind on other things.
    Cathy M. Rosenthal, ExpressNews.com, 12 July 2019
  • All of these things are leading us to disengage, to do nothing about it.
    Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 15 Apr. 2021
  • Plays with good leverage and fires off the ball, and is stout in ability to disengage.
    oregonlive, 16 Nov. 2021
  • After a tough boot camp, your joints may need a jolt to disengage and relax.
    Lindsay Tigar, CNN Underscored, 25 Mar. 2021
  • Two of the three garage doors were disengaged from their chain drive and possibly a point of entry.
    Bob Dohr, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 18 Oct. 2017
  • He's logged just 25 minutes in the series and scored two points, looking out of sync and disengaged.
    Matt Velazquez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 18 Apr. 2018
  • Turn a knob just above its battery to set the torque limit of the clutch to disengage the drivetrain and motor.
    Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 29 June 2023
  • Tufo was able to disengage from the struggle, return to his car, and drive to the courthouse, the report said.
    Jeremy C. Fox, BostonGlobe.com, 14 June 2018
  • For the first two games of the Lakers’ season, Julius Randle looked disengaged.
    Tania Ganguli, latimes.com, 29 Oct. 2017
  • The engine shuts off at stop lights and half of the cylinders disengage when they are not needed on the highway to boost gas mileage.
    USA TODAY, 31 Aug. 2017
  • Kendi was disengaged for most of high school, as concerned with his clothes as his grades.
    Rachel Poser January Lavoy Krish Seenivasan David Mason, New York Times, 4 June 2024
  • When no more grass clippings are exiting the grass chute, disengage the blade, turn off the mower, and remove the hose.
    Kamron Sanders, Better Homes & Gardens, 3 Aug. 2024
  • Teams that feel unheard are disengaged and less likely to contribute meaningfully.
    Brent Gleeson, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2024
  • Swartz, the pro-immigration lobbyist, acknowledged that there are exceptions to the idea that the business community has disengaged from the politics of immigration entirely.
    Eli Hager, ProPublica, 25 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'disengage.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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