decommission
Americanverb (used with object)
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to remove or retire (a ship, airplane, etc.) from active service.
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to deactivate; shut down.
to decommission a nuclear power plant.
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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decommissionsimple
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decommissionssimple
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have decommissionedperfect
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has decommissionedperfect
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am decommissioningprogressive
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are decommissioningprogressive
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is decommissioningprogressive
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have been decommissioningperfect progressive
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has been decommissioningperfect progressive
Past
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decommissionedsimple
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had decommissionedperfect
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was decommissioningprogressive
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were decommissioningprogressive
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had been decommissioningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of decommission
First recorded in 1925–30; de- + commission
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:
Legacy sales declined 25% due to lower demand as the company continues to decommission its copper-based network, while Latin America sales rose 21%, due in part to favorable foreign-exchange effects.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
Last week, a Hamas delegation met Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo to give its initial response to a proposal from the US-led Board of Peace for Palestinian groups to decommission their weapons.
From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2026
Cembalest highlights research undertaken by JPMorgan that scrutinized the costs incurred to the German economy stemming from its decision to decommission its nuclear power plants after the Fukushima incident.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 9, 2026
One example: his threat to decommission a spacecraft that transports National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronauts to the International Space Station.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
There, the conservation law swiftly came into conflict with a massive project to decommission thousands of septic tanks and replace them with a sewer system.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2025
Florida-based Holtec makes equipment to store nuclear waste and decommissions existing nuclear plants.
From Barron's ● Feb. 9, 2026
"The volume of material is enormous compared to past decommissions."
From Scientific American ● Apr. 29, 2011
Scientists from around the world have been working on turning decommissioned blades into other useful products.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Longer-term solutions for the Hormuz crisis would include even more pipelines, either by reviving decommissioned facilities or adding routes.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
Navy decommissioned its last battleship in 1992, after the military recognized that battleships had become sitting ducks, vulnerable to modern military munitions that could pick off the vessel from the sky.
From Salon ● May 8, 2026
They bought a decommissioned school bus, painted it bright red, and outfitted it with models of the proposed town, and Farahzad and Nye drove it around the country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
I dropped my decommissioned backpack on the kitchen table and filled the kettle from the pitcher of filtered water I kept on the counter.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
He became one of the UUP's biggest critics of the deal over issues like the IRA's decommissioning of weapons, warning his then leader David Trimble against supporting it.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
“I will advance renewable energy, import less foreign fuel and stop decommissioning of hydro and nuclear power. However, many current initiatives have unintended consequences, and my plan focuses on incentives, not mandates,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
Navy’s few specialist minesweepers were on the move—to Philadelphia and their eventual decommissioning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
Dangerously high radiation levels make removing melted fuel and other debris from the plant hit by a huge tsunami in 2011 the most daunting challenge in the decades-long decommissioning project.
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
Before decommissioning in November 1944, the Sea Cloud served on ocean weather stations off the coasts of Greenland, Newfoundland, and France.
From Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 by MacGregor, Morris J.
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.
