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.
  • June is caught off guard by this attack and cannot disengage.
    — refinery29.com, 20 June 2018
  • Unclick your seat belt or open the car door, and the system disengages.
    — Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 13 July 2018
  • These tools disengage when the foot pound limit to which they have been set is reached.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 29 June 2023
  • Take a break If all else fails, just take a break and disengage for a while.
    — Staff Author, Parents, 9 Mar. 2026
  • The seeds will disengage from the flower and fall to the bottom of the bag.
    — Jessica Damiano, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Sep. 2022
  • Some may be disengaged but staying silent.
    — Dr. Diane Hamilton, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
  • All of these things are leading us to disengage, to do nothing about it.
    — Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 15 Apr. 2021
  • After a tough boot camp, your joints may need a jolt to disengage and relax.
    — Lindsay Tigar, CNN Underscored, 25 Mar. 2021
  • Toward the end of the day, the armies disengaged and returned to their camps.
    — Jacek Krywko, Ars Technica, 30 May 2024
  • But if the lane markings fade or the road gets too twisty, the system will disengage.
    — Csaba Csere, Car and Driver, 5 Nov. 2022
  • 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
  • Plays with good leverage and fires off the ball, and is stout in ability to disengage.
    — oregonlive, 16 Nov. 2021
  • Plays with good leverage and fires off the ball, and is stout in ability to disengage.
    — oregonlive, 24 June 2021
  • For all these reasons, voters would have a reason to turn out rather than disengage.
    — Steve Mulroy, The New Republic, 8 July 2019
  • 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
  • The guard disengaged, police said, and the suspect got in his truck and crashed into him.
    — Jim Ryan, OregonLive.com, 17 July 2017
  • Even in many counties where the unions were active, most members were disengaged.
    — New York Times, 5 May 2018
  • And over time, strong performers disengage or leave.
    — Susan Parsons, Forbes.com, 12 Mar. 2026
  • For now, the two growth rates—R&D and revenue—are disengaged.
    — Kristin Broughton, WSJ, 14 Dec. 2023
  • If everything is always just out of reach, users disengage.
    — Gideon Kimbrell, Forbes.com, 26 June 2026
  • The steering output shaft may be too short and could disengage from the steering input shaft.
    — Detroit Free Press, 7 May 2021
  • The war looks empty, low-budget, the battle scenes disengaged.
    — Armond White, National Review, 2 Oct. 2024
  • The book gives you a four-step plan for disengaging from your current role and start doing things for yourself.
    — Chase Clements, Miami Herald, 20 May 2024
  • And after six seconds, the system will disengage and begin to slow down.
    — Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 13 July 2018
  • Still, no Democrat can be seen to be disengaged in the quest to keep Biden in office.
    — Philip Elliott, TIME, 1 July 2024
  • The man said the woman’s boyfriend must have disengaged the safety without his knowledge.
    — Bob Sandrick, cleveland.com, 8 Aug. 2019
  • Rogé agreed that Gen Z is not disengaged but discerning.
    — Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 Oct. 2025

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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