debunk

verb

1. (transitive)To discredit, or expose to ridicule the falsehood or the exaggerated claims of something; to refute.

   “The explosion story was thoroughly debunked on National Public Radio in November 1999.”

   “debunk a theory”

   “We began to debunk, with the aid of such Bowdlerisations of Freud as now trickled though, human motive, and learned to diagnose our mental discomforts as repressions and inhibitions—an accomplishment which gave me a good deal of relief.”

   “This is what I mean by saying that the pseudoskeptics aren't actually skeptics in a genuine sense; they're believers in some other system, out to attack and debunk what they don't believe in while trying to appear open minded and scientific, even though they're not.”

   “I am reading Nick Sousanis’ PhD dissertation-as-a-comic Unflattening. It debunks the primacy of word over image in Western culture and suggests that the two are equal partners in meaning-making.”

noun

1. (informal)A debunking; the act by which something is debunked.