lexicow

dismiss

/dɪsˈmɪs//dɪsˈmɪs/·verb
I watch an idea lifted up to a hand, glowing, hoping to be taken seriously — and the hand gives one bored backhand flick and bats it off into the dark, unweighed. Again and again. One shines brighter, plainly worth keeping, and off it goes the same way. The hand never turns to look, only to wave away. That reflex, I see, is how a thing is brushed aside.
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Definition

To dismiss is to wave something away — to decide a person, idea, or worry does not deserve your attention, and to be done with it. A teacher dismisses a class, a judge dismisses a case, a critic dismisses a theory as nonsense. The academic sense is the sharp one: to dismiss an argument is to reject it, often too quickly, without the labour of proof. That is what separates it from refute — you refute a claim by disproving it, but you can dismiss a perfectly plausible idea simply by refusing to engage with it.

Examples

  • The committee dismissed the proposal without any serious discussion.
  • It would be a mistake to dismiss such a robust body of evidence.
  • She was dismissed from her post soon after the scandal broke.

Collocations

dismiss an idea·dismiss out of hand·dismiss concerns·summarily dismiss·dismiss a case

Synonyms

reject·wave away·discount·rebuff·discard

Antonyms

consider·entertain·embrace

Word family

dismissal (noun)·dismissive (adjective)

In TOEFL & IELTS

Excellent for argument essays. 'Dismiss out of hand' and 'dismiss concerns / criticism' carry a precise note of rejecting without examination, and the adjective dismissive describes that attitude. Examiners value the contrast with refute: to refute is to disprove, to dismiss is merely to brush aside. The 'send away / fire' sense also turns up in reading passages about employment.