disencumbrance, dis incumbrance

[Pref. dis, and Eng. encumorance (q.v.).] A state of freedom or deliverance from encumbrance, impediment, or clog of any kind; freedom from debt. "There are many who make a figure below what their fortune or merit entitles then to, out of mere choice, and an elegant desire of ease and disencumbrance." --Spectator. dis-en-dow', v. t. [Pref. dis, and Eng. endow (q. v.).] To deprive or strip of endowments. dis-en-dow-ment, s. [Pref. dis, and Eng. endowment (q. v.).] The act of depriving or stripping of endowments. "There would be an immediate disendowment of the Irish Church."-G. Barnett Smith : Life of Gladstone, ch. xix. Disendowment of the Irish Church: Political & Ch . Hist .: [DISESTABLISHMENT.] dis-en-frăn-chişe, v . t . [Pref. dis , and Eng. enfranchise (q. v.).] To deprive of the rights and privileges of a free citizen; to disfranchise. dis-en-frăn-chişe-ment, s . [Pref. dis , and Eng. enfranchisement (q. v.).] The act of disenfranchising; the state of being disenfranchised; disfranchisement. dis-en-gā ģe, *dis-In-gā ģe, v . t . & i. [O. Fr. des engager: des Lat.dis away, apart, and engager =to engage, to pledge.] [ENGAGE.] A. Transitive : disengaging 3. To draw away or withdraw from that to which one is attached; to detach. 4. To withdraw, to wean, to free, to deliver from anything which occupies or engages the mind, affections, .; to abstract. "We should also beforehand disengage our mind from other things."-Beattie: Moral Science, pt. i., ch. i. 5. To disentangle; to clear or free from impediments or difficulties. "From civil broils he did us disengage ." Waller: On the Death of the Lord Protector. 6. To set free or release from any occupation; to set at liberty; to free from any detention. "Long held, and scarcely disengaged at last." Cowper: Task, iii. 116. 7. To set free, release, or liberate from any obligation or engagement. *B. In trans.: To withdraw one's self; to set one's self free from; to abstract one's thoughts or affections. "Providence gives us notice, by sensible declensions, that we may disengage from the world by degrees."Collier: On Thought. Crabb thus discriminates between to disengage , to disentangle , and to extricate : " Extricate , in Latin extricatus , from ex and trica , a hair, or noose, signifies to get as it were out of a noose. As to en gage signifies simply to bind, and entangle signifies to bind in an involved manner, to disentangle is naturally applied to matters of greater difficulty aud perplexity than to disengage : and as the term extricate includes the idea of that which would hold fast and keep within a tight involvement, it is employed with respect to matters of the greatest po ible embarra ment and intricacy: we may be disengaged from an oath, disentangled from pecuniary difficulties, extricated from a suit at law: it is not right to expect to be disengaged from all the duties which attach to men as members of society; he who enters into disputes about contested property must not expect to be soon disentangled from the law; when a general has committed himself by coming into too close a contact with a very superior force, he may think himself fortunate if he can extricate himself from his awkward situation with the lo of half his army." (Crabb: Eng. Synon. )