estrange
Americanverb (used with object)
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estranges,
present (3rd person singular)
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estranged,
past participle, past
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estranging
present participle
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to turn away in feeling or affection; make unfriendly or hostile; alienate the affections of.
Their quarrel estranged the two friends.
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to remove to or keep at a distance.
The necessity for traveling on business has estranged him from his family.
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to divert from the original use or possessor.
verb
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to separate and live apart from (one's spouse)
he is estranged from his wife
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to antagonize or lose the affection of (someone previously friendly); alienate
Synonym Usage
Estrange, alienate, disaffect share the sense of causing (someone) to turn away from a previously held state of affection, comradeship, or allegiance. Estrange often implies replacement of love or belonging by apathy or hostility: erstwhile lovers estranged by a misunderstanding. Alienate often calls attention to the cause of antagonism or separation: His inconsiderate behavior alienated both friends and family. Disaffect usually refers to relationships involving allegiance or loyalty rather than love or affection: disaffected workers, demoralized by ill-considered management policies.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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estrangesimple
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estrangessimple
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have estrangedperfect
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has estrangedperfect
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am estrangingprogressive
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are estrangingprogressive
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is estrangingprogressive
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have been estrangingperfect progressive
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has been estrangingperfect progressive
Past
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estrangedsimple
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had estrangedperfect
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was estrangingprogressive
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were estrangingprogressive
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had been estrangingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of estrange
First recorded in 1475–85; from Middle French, Old French estranger; cognate with Portuguese estranhar, Spanish estrañar, Italian straniare, from Medieval Latin extrāneāre “to treat as a stranger,” derivative of Latin extrāneus “external, foreign, strange”; see extraneous
Explanation
To estrange people may sound like adding wobbly antennae and an extra eyeball to their faces. Really, estrange means to push apart people who were once close to each other and cause them to be like strangers. The verb estrange comes from the Old French estranger, "to treat like a stranger.” Estrange is often used when talking about family members who are no longer in contact with each other. Estrange can also mean "to keep at a distance or remove." With this sense, a writer can estrange readers by using too many big words your can talk about wanting to estrange the neighbor’s dog from your flowerbed. If you're looking for a synonym that is less “strange” but more “alien,” try alienate.
Vocabulary lists containing estrange
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"The Iliad" by Homer, Book 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Research shows that adults who estrange themselves from relatives often do so "with a great amount of care and consideration over time," she says.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
Translation was for him a ferrying across borders and a way of hearing one language estrange another.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
"Children who choose to estrange themselves aren't making a little decision on a whim," explained Joshua Stein, a researcher who tracks online trends, especially those that intersect with psychology and bioethics.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2024
Another reason I spend more time advising those who estrange vs. those who have been estranged?
From Washington Post ● Jun. 8, 2022
You, and such as you, who have risen from small things to a place in the Upper House, should unite the nobles and the people instead of trying to estrange them.
From My Lords of Strogue, Vol. I (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Lewis Wingfield
She transforms herself from “a wild, hatless little savage” into a lady, which estranges her from her childhood companion and besotted admirer, Heathcliff, a foundling who lives with her family.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
“I didn’t see her, and nor was she with her family … It breaks bonds and estranges people.”
From The Guardian ● Dec. 13, 2020
Ultimately, this thing is just another machine that estranges us from the ingredients that make up the food and drinks that we consume.
From Slate ● Nov. 15, 2018
Meekness, he said, “enables us to set aside everything that divides and estranges us, and to find ever new ways to advance along the path of unity.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 1, 2016
But it is not a rare thing with us that one estranges or alienates another's man-servant or maid-servant, or entices them away by flattering words.
From Martin Luther's Large Catechism, translated by Bente and Dau by F. (Friedrich) Bente
When writer Christina Wyman discovered that her mother was active in a Facebook group for estranged parents, she found herself in a toxic echo chamber that was doing more harm than good.
From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2026
The contentious divorce trial of hedge-fund titan John Overdeck and his estranged wife Laura has offered the public a rare window into the mind-boggling wealth being generated on Wall Street.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
There are so many comments from parents who proudly proclaim they have disinherited their estranged child.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
According to the petition, the estranged spouses married Oct.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
On February 19, Pa writes to Theo that he's worried Vincent is becoming estranged from him and Ma again.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
By estranging me from the world, derealization, paradoxically, makes it more real.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 14, 2022
“Financial derivatives are more cognitively estranging than pennies. Global climate change is more cognitively estranging than yesterday’s local weather.”
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 6, 2019
They spoke on the condition of anonymity over concerns about estranging colleagues.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 30, 2018
The deliberate mystery and estranging subterranean location of cave paintings suggests that the origins of art have much more to do with religion than sex.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 3, 2016
From the precipitous little garden where orange and lime trees bent beneath their fruit among the underbrush of aloes and cactus, they could see, far away, the estranging sea.
From A Bed of Roses by Walter Lionel George
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
