Showing posts with label dislocate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dislocate. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

dislocate, dissociate

Dislocate or dislocate means to put out of joint or out of proper position, as a limb or an organ--
You could dislocate the child's shoulder if  you lift him by the arms.
How did your grandmother dislocate her hip?

Dissociate or dissociate ( sometimes spelled disassociate ) means to separate; to break off ties--
When he found out what the company was up to, he tried to publicly dissociate himself from it.

Dissociate is also a psychological term, meaning to keep one or more mental processes separate from the conscious mind, as after trauma--
He tends to dissociate because it makes him feel better, at least as a short-term measure.

Now that you know that, you can say--
"He may dissociate, and claim he doesn't remember the accident, unless you ask him "how did you dislocate your shoulder?"