decenter

[ dee-sen-ter ]

verb (used with object)

1. to put out of the center or make eccentric:

   The goal is to decenter the treatment zone of the eye to align with the line of sight instead of the geometric center of the cornea.

2. to remove from a position of priority or dominance so as to give attention and influence to other viewpoints, concerns, etc.:

   The new version of the test will force high schools to teach history from a perspective that decenters whiteness.

   The author’s call to decenter the self, to make empathetic leaps toward the other, is unsentimental yet moving.

3. Astronomy. to cause (an orbit) to follow a path in which the body being orbited is not at the center:

   A decentered orbit is temporary—all orbits around a single body become elliptical and centered in due time.

verb (used without object)

1. to shift one’s attention from one’s usual focus or preoccupation:

   As therapists we must decenter from our own perspective and experience the client through their own way of being in the world.

Word History and Origins

Origin of decenter¹

First recorded in 1885–90; de- ( def ) + center ( def )

Example Sentences

I still need to work on a lot of this stuff, but the clarity that you get from extricating yourself from that situation, from just trying to decenter work a little bit, I think is super powerful.

From Vox

But I want her to think well of me—I want to show her that I'm as decent as most men 'round these parts, and decenter than some.

From Project Gutenberg

I saw at once that he was a good deal decenter than he looked.

From Project Gutenberg

But it will be far decenter and better for a parties to enter into some agreement of that sort.

From Project Gutenberg

There was a theory in his family that it would have been a decenter thing for him to stop running about and settle down to work.

From Project Gutenberg

I am in another man's skin; for what, after all, is a skin but a soul's clothing, and what is clothing but a decenter skin?

From Project Gutenberg