DictionaryAI

disclose

dis-KLOHZ/dɪsˈkləʊz/

Formsdiscloses, disclosing, disclosed

4 meanings of disclose

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive
    To make something known to others, stating it openly or revealing it.

    The report disclosed serious safety problems at the factory.

    Officials are required to disclose any financial conflicts of interest.

    Similarreveal, divulge, unveil, impart, publish

    Oppositeconceal, hide, withhold, suppress

    Note

    The everyday meaning, and the one that readily takes a that-clause. Bernard E. Harcourt's Illusion of Order (2001) faults a scholar who "fails to disclose … that his data reveal" no significant link. The verb can also stand alone, with its object understood. In Anne Cognito's Sunlight in the Darkness (2013), the writer decides "I have to disclose," meaning to reveal being trans.

  2. 2
    verbtransitive
    To uncover something or bring it physically into view.

    Lifting the lid disclosed a nest of tangled wires inside.

    Archaeologists carefully brush away soil to disclose ancient mosaics.

    Similarreveal, unveil

    Oppositeconceal, hide, cover, obscure

    Note

    Often the subject is whatever opens, not a person. In Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (1922), the roof "opened and disclosed the outer dark." In Nabokov's Transparent Things (1972), a half-drawn curtain discloses the legs of a woman seated inside. A common pattern is "open to disclose," as with nest toys that open to show a set of babies. Unveil and reveal are close partners.

  3. 3
    verbobsoletetransitive
    To open up or unfasten something.
    The estrich layeth her eggs under sand, where the heat of the discloseth them.
    1627, Francis [Bacon], Sylua Syluarum
    Note

    The literal sense, built straight from its parts: Latin dis- joined to claudere, "to close, shut," so to disclose was simply to un-close. Francis Bacon in 1627 could still write that heat "discloseth" the ostrich's eggs buried in sand, meaning it opens them as they hatch. The use is obsolete. Open or unfasten now does this work, and disclose belongs to the sense of revealing information.

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    nounobsolete
    A disclosure; an act of making something known.

    His unexpected disclose of the plot alarmed the whole council.

    The merchant feared the disclose of his heavy losses.

    Note

    A noun formed from the bare verb, now obsolete, where current English uses disclosure. Its plural, discloses, is spelled exactly like the verb's third-person singular, so a sentence using it can be read two ways. In modern writing, use disclosure. Keep disclose as a noun for deliberate imitation of older English.

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Origin

This comes from Middle English disclosen, via Middle French desclos and Old French desclore, from Vulgar Latin disclaudere (from Latin dis- plus claudere, "to close, shut"), or perhaps as a variant of discludere. The English equivalent is dis- plus close.