defibrillate

American  

[dee-fahy-bruh-leyt, -fib-ruh-] / diˈfaɪ brəˌleɪt, -ˈfɪb rə- /

verb (used with object)

Medicine/Medical.

defibrillated, defibrillating

1. to arrest the fibrillation of (heart muscle) by applying electric shock across the chest, thus depolarizing the heart cells and allowing normal rhythm to return.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• defibrillation
  noun

Etymology

Origin of defibrillate

1930–35; de- + fibrillate, back formation from fibrillation

Explanation

To defibrillate is to use a specialized machine that zaps electricity into a person's erratically-beating heart. Doctors and EMTs sometimes have to defibrillate patients having heart attacks. The verb defibrillate comes from defibrillation and its roots, de-, "undo-, and fibrillation, "beating in an abnormal way." So when a patient's heartbeat is dangerously abnormal, doctors will sometimes defibrillate it to shock it back into a normal rhythm. The tool they use to perform this procedure is a defibrillator.

Example Sentences

In 2022, as part of the lead-up to “Top Gun: Maverick,” the blockbuster that would defibrillate the pandemic box office, Cruise received an honorary Palme d’Or and a salute from eight zipping French jets.

From Los Angeles Times • May 15, 2025

The now white material was subjected to ultrasonic treatment to defibrillate the pulp at a mycelial level.

From Science Daily • Jan. 8, 2024

"The faster you can get to somebody and have effective CPR and then defibrillate them with an AED the better the outcomes are going to be."

From Salon • Jan. 4, 2023

They come running out, they've got the defibrillator, and a portable cardiac thing, they cut open his shirt, they defibrillate him, it's like clockwork.

From The Guardian • Dec. 14, 2012

The "kids with beards," as Billy Wilder called the Brat Generation, have become the Establishment, turned 50 and watched as younger, hungrier directors tried to defibrillate the nearly comatose cinema muse.

From Time Magazine Archive