displace

[dis-pleys]

verb (used with object)

displaced, displacing 

1. to compel (a person or persons) to leave home, country, etc.

2. to move or put out of the usual or proper place.

   Synonyms: relocate

3. to take the place of; replace; supplant.

   Fiction displaces fact.

4. to remove from a position, office, or dignity.

   Synonyms: dismiss, oust, depose

5. Obsolete.,  to rid oneself of.

displace

/ dɪsˈpleɪs /

verb

1. to move from the usual or correct location

2. to remove from office or employment

3. to occupy the place of; replace; supplant

4. to force (someone) to leave home or country, as during a war

5. chem to replace (an atom or group in a chemical compound) by another atom or group

6. physics to cause a displacement of (a quantity of liquid, usually water of a specified type and density)

Other Word Forms

• displacer noun
• displaceable adjective
• predisplace verb (used with object)
• undisplaceable adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of displace¹

1545–55; dis- ¹ + place, perhaps modeled on Middle French desplacer

Synonym Study

Displace, misplace mean to put something in a different place from where it should be. To displace often means to shift something solid and comparatively immovable, more or less permanently from its place: The flood displaced houses from their foundations. To misplace is to put an object in a wrong place so that it is difficult to find: Papers belonging in the safe were misplaced and temporarily lost.

Example Sentences

But Palestinians said displaced families had been sheltering in the building, and Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal accused Israel of enacting "a policy of forced displacement".

From BBC

Rows of tents - which have sprung up over the city to shelter Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military campaign - have also disappeared over the past month, the images show.

From BBC

Medics said two people were killed in one strike on a tent at a camp for displaced families in western Gaza City, close to al-Shifa hospital.

From BBC

Since 14 August, more than 82,000 people had been newly displaced, according to the cluster.

From BBC

That disaster, along with the Palisades fire, displaced two distinct communities with deep roots in the music industry.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• disturb 
• evict 
• expel 
• force out 
• lose 
• uproot