désenchanter

"To disenchant, to disillusion" — to strip someone of their illusions or idealism, often about life, love, or a cause they once believed in. Common in literary and reflective registers; the adjective désenchanté(e) (disillusioned) is even more frequent than the verb itself.

• Les années ont fini par la désenchanter. — The years eventually left her disillusioned.
• Ce scandale a désenchanté toute une génération de militants. — This scandal disillusioned an entire generation of activists.
• Rien ne semblait pouvoir le désenchanter tout à fait. — Nothing seemed able to fully strip him of his illusions.

Désenchanter is about losing illusions or idealism, not about breaking a literal magic spell — for that meaning (undoing witchcraft), désensorceler or désenvoûter is the right verb.

Often confused with désensorceler.

• song Désenchantée — Mylène Farmer's 1991 hit single, whose title is the feminine past participle/adjective of désenchanter — one of the best-known French pop songs built on this word family, voicing a disillusioned generation amid the era's political unrest (student protests and the Gulf War).