unsubstantiate

English

Etymology

un- +‎ substantiate

Verb

unsubstantiate (third-person singular simple present unsubstantiates, present participle unsubstantiating, simple past and past participle unsubstantiated)

1. To prove false; to disprove or discredit.
   • 1938, William Lawrence Wrinkle, The New High School in the Making, page 306:

     With this evidence, in addition to the findings of previous research, showing conclusively that it is not the pattern of courses followed by the student in the high school but his scholastic aptitude which determines his success in the college program, only one additional type of evidence is needed to completely unsubstantiate the reverence of colleges for entrance prescriptions.

   • 1990, Acta Oto-laryngologica - Volume 110, page 162:

     Confirming rules substantiate or unsubstantiate the presumption diagnosis and therefore are not unavoidable.

   • 1991, Calcutta Statistical Association Bulletin - Volume 40, page 7:

     R A Fisher had the knack for making statements about theoretical conclusions without bothering to give any supporting proof and it befell the lot of lesser mortals to substantiate (and occasionally to unsubstantiate) these statements.

   • 2002, Pennsylvania. Dept. of Aging, Annual Report, page 12:

     The purpose of an investigation is to substantiate or unsubstantiate the reported need for protective services.

   • 2007, Ulric Killion, Modern Chinese Rules of Order: Paradox of Law and Economics:

     In the context of East Asia, admittedly, the democratic peace thesis remains difficult to substantiate or unsubstantiate by empirical evidence.

2. (human services) To officially categorize (an allegation) as unsubstantiated.
   • 1989, Dissertation Abstracts International: The humanities and social sciences, page 543:

     Stepwise logistic regression analysis was used to determine whether or not there was a relationship between specified factors and the decision to substantiate or unsubstantiate sexual abuse cases.

   • 1996, Michigan. Legislature. Senate. Democratic Task Force on Protecting Michigan's Children, Monsters Aren't Only Under the Bed, page 8:

     In a memo dated, February 24, 1993, the Department of Social Services instructed its workers to "unsubstantiate" a case if the following were thought to be true:

   • 2002, Policy and Practice of Public Human Services - Volumes 60-62:

     The overall influence of such considerations limits the study's ability to conclude decisively that all the insignificant policy variables considered in the analysis do not influence the decision to unsubstantiate.

3. To call into question; to create doubt about.
   • 1855, Thomas Chalmers, Sermons: Select Works - Volume 4, page 209:

     You bring down the high economy of heaven to the standard of human convenience. You pull the fabric of God's moral government to pieces; and unsubstantiate all the solemnity of His proclaimed sayings—all the lofty annunciations of the law, and of the prophets—all that is told of the mighty apparatus of the day of judgment—all that revelation points to, or conscience can suggest, of a living and a reigning God, who will not let Himself down to be affronted or trampled upon by the creatures whom He has formed.

   • 1878, James Bowling Mozley, Essays, Historical and Theological:

     And when they can really pick any hole in such characters, and unsubstantiate them, what a pleasure it is !

   • 1881, Alexander Campbell Fraser, Berkeley, page 91:

     The premises that unsubstantiate Matter, they would argue, unsubstantiate everything.

   • 1995, Art Now Gallery Guide: International - Volume 15, Issues 1-2, page 327:

     My purpose in dealing with these images is to attempt to unsubstantiate any attached conception and preconception of the image, especially the stereotypes of interpretation.

4. To make insubstantial or abstract; unsubstantialize.
   • 1961, James Blair Leishman, Themes and variations in Shakespeare's sonnets, page 112:

     Shakespeare's tendency to generalise, spiritualise and unsubstantiate was as great as his capacity to particularise and substantiate.

   • 1961, John Henry Newman, Charles Stephen Dessain, The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman:

     He has been the powerful and effective organ of our Church; and when he goes, no wonder that many feel a void and blank which seems to unsubstantiate their Church, and make it no longer a home to them.

   • 1969, Kathleen Szasz, Petishism: Pets and Their People in the Western World, page 46:

     To the Homo neuroticus, in whom fear of death and the death wish are equally balanced, old age is odious because it reminds him of the reality of death he is always trying to unsubstantiate into an intellectual game.

Adjective

unsubstantiate (comparative more unsubstantiate, superlative most unsubstantiate)

1. Lacking substance; insubstantial.
   • 1921, Olive Mary Salter, Martha and Mary, page 43:

     He thought of his parents and Mary with the tenderness of separation, and felt ashamed because he had neglected his mother's letter for this unknown, unsubstantiate Martha's.

   • 1931, Abdruschin, In the Light of Truth, page 216:

     He steps over from Divinity unsubstantiate to spiritual substance just as he once descended into the world of matter.

   • 2007, S. S. Prabhakar Rao, The Golden Bouquet, page 269:

     The froth bubbling on, at the surface, is merely the run of the cotton, soft and unsubstantiate.

2. Unsubstantiated; unproven.
   • 1974, Law Reform Commission of Canada, Studies in Strict Liability, page 89:

     This, however, was a case where the defendant (described in the file as a possible “fly-by-nighter”) made a quite unsubstantiate claim for the goods he was selling.

   • 1976, Survey of People's Republic of China Press:

     The unsubstantiate slanders made by Teng Hsiao-p'ing can only expose his rapacious design of trying to reverse verdicts, settle accounts and carry out restoration.

   • 1999, The Middle East, Abstracts and Index - Volume 22, Part 3, page 262:

     Iran responds to unsubstantiate accusations by the New York Times that Iran hired five Russian scientists from Russia and Kazakhstan;