verb
- making something familiar seem strange, unfamiliar, or unusual; presenting the ordinary in a way that removes habitual perception
Usage: present participle of defamiliarise; chiefly British spelling; American English typically uses 'defamiliarizing'; common in literary and artistic criticism
Examples
- The artist's defamiliarising technique forced viewers to reconsider everyday objects.
- By defamiliarising the language, the poet made readers question their assumptions about meaning.
- The film uses defamiliarising camera angles to create a sense of unease.
- Defamiliarising ordinary scenes is a key strategy in modernist literature.
- The director achieved a defamiliarising effect by filming familiar locations from unusual perspectives.