All 3 Uses of
dispel
in
Fast Food Nation
- The "joint ventures" now being offered by processing companies provide farmers with the potato seed and financing for their crop, an arrangement that should dispel any lingering illusions about their independence.†
p. 119.5 *
- White Castle, the nation's first hamburger chain, worked hard in the 1920s to dispel the hamburger's tawdry image.†
p. 197.9
- The media played a central role in helping these "activist fearmongers," but the National Restaurant Association had recently launched a counterattack, working closely with journalists to dispel myths and gain better publicity Nugent called upon the fast food executives to respond even more forcefully to their critics, people who today posed "a real danger to our industry and more broadly to our way of life."†
p. 238.3
Definitions:
-
(1)
(dispel) to drive away (get rid of) -- especially a feeling or idea
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Dispel is generally used to in reference to getting rid of ideas or feelings, but more rarely, it can be used to reference the scattering away of something physical as in: "The noise dispelled the pigeons."