dismantle

verb

Etymology: From Middle French desmanteler, itself from des- (“dis-”), mantel (“coat”) + -er (verbal suffix). Compare typologically uncloak, reveal, unmask.

1. To take apart; to disassemble; to take to pieces.

   “In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax.”

   “This story of how American originality lost its way is arresting and well told. On an alternate timeline without Donald Trump in office dismantling the American scientific establishment and Elon Musk kneecapping the American state, it might have been the manifesto of a new politics.”

2. To disprove a discourse, claim or argument.

   “If we can dismantle hate rhetoric and explain why it is, in fact, illogical, is the language no longer dangerous?”

3. To divest, strip of dress or covering.

   “This is most ſtrange, that ſhe, who even but now Was your beſt object, the argument of your praiſe, Balme of your age, moſt beſt, moſt deereſt, Should in this trice of time commit a thing So monſtrous, to diſmantell ſo many foulds of fauour, […]”

4. To remove fittings or furnishings from.