dislodge

From Middle English disloggen, from Old French deslogier. Compare French déloger.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈlɒdʒ/
• Rhymes: -ɒdʒ

dislodge (third-person singular simple present dislodges, present participle dislodging, simple past and past participle dislodged)

1. (transitive) To remove or force out from a position or dwelling previously occupied.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     Yet I hoped by grouting at the earth below it to be able to dislodge the stone at the side; but while I was considering how best to begin, the candle flickered, the wick gave a sudden lurch to one side, and I was left in darkness.

2. (intransitive) To move or go from a dwelling or former position.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Where Light and Darkness in perpetual round / Lodge and dislodge by turns.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To force out of a secure or settled position.
   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎:

     The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.