deactivate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cause to be inactive; remove the effectiveness of.
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to demobilize or disband (a military unit).
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to render (a bomb, shell, or the like) inoperative, especially by disconnecting, removing, or otherwise interfering with the action of the fuze.
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Chemistry. to render (a chemical, enzyme, catalyst, etc.) inactive.
verb (used without object)
verb
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(tr) to make (a bomb, etc) harmless or inoperative
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(intr) to become less radioactive
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(tr) to end the active status of (a military unit)
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chem to return or cause to return from an activated state to a normal or ground state
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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deactivatesimple
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deactivatessimple
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have deactivatedperfect
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has deactivatedperfect
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am deactivatingprogressive
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are deactivatingprogressive
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is deactivatingprogressive
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have been deactivatingperfect progressive
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has been deactivatingperfect progressive
Past
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deactivatedsimple
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had deactivatedperfect
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was deactivatingprogressive
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were deactivatingprogressive
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had been deactivatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of deactivate
Vocabulary lists containing deactivate
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In mid-March, the University of Florida moved to deactivate the group.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026
Nearly 50 cities nationwide have opted to deactivate their scanners or cancel contracts with Flock, mostly in recent months, according to the website DeFlock.me, which has set out to map locations of the company’s cameras.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2026
He suggests that the smoke alarm industry has a responsibility to reduce nuisance alarms, which sometimes cause people to deactivate or uninstall the devices – a huge safety risk.
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2026
Earlier work from his group showed that when resveratrol and copper are combined, they generate oxygen radicals that deactivate or destroy cfChPs.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 10, 2025
“You’re a good friend, Festus. No one can truly deactivate you. You’re more than a machine. Khione doesn’t understand that.”
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
The researchers used optogenetics, a technique that activates or deactivates genes using light.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 9, 2026
Similar to the way that HR deactivates an employee's logins when they leave, there needs to be a process for shutting down AI agents that have finished their work, he says.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2025
It deactivates accounts that could pose a risk to its hosts.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 18, 2023
The exposure to QMP deactivates their own ovaries and makes them inclined to instead raise the queen honey bee's offspring, known as retinue behavior.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2023
The activation of a shielding model also deactivates the protection structure of a person or at least some section of it.
From The Brain, A Decoded Enigma by Moisa, Dorin Teodor
About 50 cities and counties have canceled Flock contracts or deactivated cameras since early last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Australia implemented an outright ban six months ago which prevents under-16s from creating new social media accounts - and deactivated existing ones - on ten major social media platforms including TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
Every deactivated driver is given a reason for termination and offered a review process for more information.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026
In contrast, mice in which HIF1 was deactivated in tendon tissue did not develop tendon disease, even when their tendons were overloaded.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 12, 2026
“Trust me, I’m not happy about this situation either, but all of the staff here at the mountain have been deactivated, which means that you are the only option.”
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Tech companies said they would comply with the ban, and some began deactivating accounts before the law came into effect.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 10, 2025
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has already started deactivating accounts based on information such as the age given when they were created.
From Barron's ● Dec. 2, 2025
Pretty Little Thing faced a backlash when it started deactivating accounts it said had high rates of return last year.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2025
They were intrigued to realize the battery could be reactivated, or prevented from deactivating at all, simply through operational changes in the charge/discharge cycle.
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024
Petey snapped his fingers, deactivating the gravity dampeners.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
