To dislodge means to force something out of its position or remove it from where it's stuck. When a soccer ball gets wedged in a tree branch, you might throw sticks to dislodge it. When food gets caught between your teeth, you use floss to dislodge it.

The word suggests that something is firmly in place and needs effort to move. A rock lodged in the ground stays put until you dig around it and dislodge it. During a landslide, heavy rains can dislodge boulders from a mountainside. In a chess match, you might dislodge your opponent's knight from its strong defensive position by attacking it with a pawn.

You can also dislodge ideas or people from positions they hold. A revolutionary scientific discovery might dislodge old beliefs about how the world works. A challenger in an election tries to dislodge the current mayor from office.

The key is that dislodging requires some kind of force or effort: something was settled, stuck, or established, and now you're working to move it out of place.