To negate a standard Knightmare spell and do away with its effect - in other words, to dispel the spell. It is sometimes written as 'dispell' by those who think that the wordplay needs to be more obvious.

The process of dispelling involves saying "dispel", optionally followed by the name of the previously cast spell, followed by all the letters of the spell in the wrong order (it didn't have to be exact reverse). Usually the letters would appear on screen as they were called out, and then the effect of the dispel was seen.

Dispelling, though neither necessary nor possible in every instance, was done for the following reasons:

- When the continuation of a spell would have proved inconvenient to a team's quest. For example, the spellcasting of BIG helped dungeoneer Ross (Team 6 of Series 3) to scare Olaf away, but would have made it problematic for him to use dwarf tunnels and wellways; so the magic was dispelled (as GIB), causing Ross to shrink back to his normal size. The circumstances of GROWME's dispelling were similar.
> When the continuation of a spell would have proved dangerous to a team's quest. Team 4 of Series 1 spellcast ANVIL to deal with Gumboil, but then had to dispel to stop the anvil turning on dungeoneer Danny. SWORD falls into this category too.
< When the act of merciful dispelling would have helped a team. Team 1 of Series 6 cast SAMURAI to intimidate Sylvester Hands, and gained assistance from the frightened vagabond by agreeing to dispel it. TRICK is another example.
On most occasions, a dispel was carried out by the caster of the original spell (exceptions: SWORD, TOAD, SAMURAI), and on most occasions the dispeller was an advisor (exception: Sidriss and her dispelling of MOUSE). SWORD and SAMURAI were the only spells to be dispelled on more than one separate occasion, though all three dispellings of SWORD took place in a single quest. Only once did a team try to dispel and find it impossible (CHANGE, Team 7 of Series 5), due to the magic being cast locked.
Various quests suffered because of the teams' ill judgement over dispelling. Team 3 of Series 1 were Knightmare's first dispellers - the spell was LANTERN - but the ensuing darkness led them into fatal danger at the hands of Gibbet. Team 2 of Series 3 used DANCE against McGrew, but fled instead of heeding his plea for mercy and dispelling, leaving them without the necessary help to complete Level 2. Team 7 of Series 2 got in a muddle when trying to dispel SHROUD, as they kept missing the letter O out of their attempts. In their desperation, they even tried using an alternative term, "turn-spell", but to no avail.

[Earlier version: 2006-04-19 23:07:35]

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[Addendum]

Paradoxically, Dispel is the name of a spell in the 1991 Knightmare computer game from Mindscape. It can be used by wizards to 'kill ghosts', which also seems paradoxical.

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