1. to make something familiar seem strange or unfamiliar; to present the ordinary in an unusual way to provoke fresh perception
Usage: chiefly British spelling; American spelling is 'defamiliarize'; often used in literary and artistic criticism

Examples

• The artist used unusual angles and colors to defamiliarise the everyday urban landscape.
• The writer's experimental narrative technique serves to defamiliarise the reader from conventional storytelling.
• By removing context, the curator sought to defamiliarise the historical artifacts and encourage viewers to see them anew.
• The director's unconventional staging choices defamiliarise the classic play for modern audiences.
• Surrealist painters often defamiliarise ordinary objects by placing them in bizarre, dreamlike settings.