disablern.
/dɪsˈeɪblə/, U.S. /dəˈseɪblər/ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > figure of speech > figures of meaning > [noun] > understatement
meiosis1550
disabler1589
1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xvi. 154 Such speach is by the figure Meiosis or the disabler spoken of hereafter in the place of sententious figures.
1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xix. 183 We call him the Disabler or figure of Extenuation.
2. gen. A person who or a thing which disables (in various senses). rare before 20th cent.
ΚΠ
1687 P. Pett Obligation from Oath of Supremacy ii. 58 Him who sitteth in the Heavens having some Disablers in derisien who imagined a vain thing.
1700 J. Jones Myst. Opium Reveal'd viii. 45 All Authors, who stated Opium to be a Diminisher or Disabler of the Spirits.
1938 Newcastle (Pa.) News 12 Jan. 3/3 This wrecker and disabler of mankind [sc. syphilis] ranks high, if not first, among the causes of death.
1954 O. Riddle Unleashing Evol. Thought i. v. 107 Sanctity of life in insects and other disablers and killers of men.
1986 Consumer Rep. Oct. 659/1 An engine disabler typically interrupts current to the starter or the ignition, making it impossible to start the car.
2006 Financial Adviser (Nexis) 2 Feb. We may offer them guidance from our own life experience, but it is not our position to tell them..how to do it... We are enablers, not disablers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1589