desquerer

A literary and somewhat archaic verb meaning to stop loving someone, to fall out of love — the emotional opposite of querer rather than a simple negation of it. It shows up in poetry, song lyrics, and older prose more than in everyday conversation, where dejar de querer or ya no querer would be the natural modern phrasing.

• Con los años, empezó a desquererlo poco a poco. — Over the years, she gradually fell out of love with him.
• El poema habla de cómo se desquiere a quien antes se amó. — The poem talks about falling out of love with someone once loved.
• No es que la odie, simplemente la desquiere. — It's not that he hates her, he's just stopped loving her.

Using desquerer in casual conversation, where it sounds noticeably literary or old-fashioned — dejar de querer or ya no querer a alguien is what a native speaker would actually say day to day.

Often confused with querer.