disqualify

/dɪsˈkwɑlɪfaɪ/

/dɪsˈkwɒlɪfaɪ/

Other forms: disqualified; disqualifying; disqualifies

To disqualify someone is to not allow them to participate, or to make them unfit for participation. Turning eleven would disqualify a person from playing on a soccer team for kids ten and under.

Judges will disqualify a marathon runner if they discover she's actually wearing roller skates, and a baseball player's age may disqualify him from playing on a certain team. Being blind disqualifies people from driving, and a criminal history can disqualify someone from working at a school. Disqualify adds the "do the opposite of" prefix dis- to qualify, which comes from the medieval Latin root qualificare, "to attribute a quality to."

Definitions of disqualify

1. verb

   make unfit or unsuitable
   “Your income disqualifies you”

   synonyms: indispose, unfit

   antonyms:

   qualify

   make fit or prepared

   type of:

   alter, change, modify

   cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
2. verb

   declare unfit
   “She was disqualified for the Olympics because she was a professional athlete”

   antonyms:

   qualify

   pronounce fit or able

   types:

   recuse

   disqualify oneself (as a judge) in a particular case

   disbar

   remove from the bar; expel from the practice of law by official action

   type of:

   judge, label, pronounce

   pronounce judgment on