Library / English Dictionary

DISINTEGRATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Break into parts or components or lose cohesion or unity

Example:

the group disintegrated after the leader died

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "disintegrate" is one way to...):

change integrity (change in physical make-up)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "disintegrate"):

powder; powderise; powderize; pulverise; pulverize (make into a powder by breaking up or cause to become dust)

powderise; powderize; pulverise; pulverize (become powder or dust)

run; unravel (become undone)

crumble; fall apart (break or fall apart into fragments)

digest (soften or disintegrate, as by undergoing exposure to heat or moisture)

dissolve (pass into a solution)

break apart; break up; crash (break violently or noisily; smash)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something ----s something

Antonym:

integrate (make into a whole or make part of a whole)

Derivation:

disintegration (separation into component parts)

disintegration (in a decomposed state)

disintegrative (tending to cause breakup into constituent elements or parts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current

Example:

the particles disintegrated during the nuclear fission process

Synonyms:

decay; decompose; disintegrate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "disintegrate" is one way to...):

change integrity (change in physical make-up)

Verb group:

disintegrate (cause to undergo fission or lose particles)

Domain category:

natural philosophy; physics (the science of matter and energy and their interactions)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

disintegration (the spontaneous disintegration of a radioactive substance along with the emission of ionizing radiation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cause to undergo fission or lose particles

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "disintegrate" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Verb group:

decay; decompose; disintegrate (lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current)

Domain category:

natural philosophy; physics (the science of matter and energy and their interactions)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

disintegration (the spontaneous disintegration of a radioactive substance along with the emission of ionizing radiation)

disintegrative (tending to cause breakup into constituent elements or parts)

Credits

 Context examples: 

A tablet that disintegrates rapidly, usually within a matter of seconds, when placed upon the tongue but is also designed to impede the immediate release of the active and/or inert ingredient(s) after administration.

(Orally Disintegrating Delayed Release Tablet Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus)

A solid dosage form containing medicinal substances which disintegrates rapidly, usually within a matter of seconds, when placed upon the tongue, but which releases a drug (or drugs) at a time other than promptly after administration.

(Orally Disintegrating Delayed Release Tablet Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

A map released by NASA's Near Earth Object (NEO) Program reveals that small asteroids frequently enter and disintegrate in the Earth's atmosphere with random distribution around the globe.

(New Map Shows Frequency of Small Asteroid Impacts, Provides Clues on Larger Asteroid Population, NASA)

A rapidly disintegrating film-coated tablet composed of the fluoropyrimidine carbamate antimetabolite capecitabine with antineoplastic activity.

(Capecitabine Rapidly Disintegrating Tablet, NCI Thesaurus)

It is an old time-table now, disintegrating at its folds and headed "This schedule in effect July 5th, 1922."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)