disestablish

English[edit]

disestablish (third-person singular simple present disestablishes, present participle disestablishing, simple past and past participle disestablished)

To deprive (an established church, military squadron, operations base, etc.) of its official status.
- 1978 December 9, Mitzel, “Post-Briggs Blues”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 20, page 5:
  Ah, but the virtue of public education, it is said, is that it is secular and non-denominational. Don't count on it. Massachusetts, the last state to disestablish religion (1832), didn't until July of 1978 decide that it was unconstitutional for the public school system to subsidize religious schools through so-called textbook loans.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 556:
  Furthermore, disestablishing the Catholic church in February 1795 essentially instituted a free field in religious belief.
To abolish (an existing position of employment).

To make stable or firm; to confirm