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Synonyms

devitalize

American  
[dee-vahyt-l-ahyz] / diˈvaɪt lˌaɪz /
especially British, devitalise

verb (used with object)

devitalized, devitalizing
  1. to deprive of vitality or vital properties; make lifeless; weaken.


devitalize British  
/ diːˈvaɪtəˌlaɪz /

verb

  1. (tr) to lower or destroy the vitality of; make weak or lifeless

    the war devitalized the economy

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of devitalize

First recorded in 1840–50; de- + vitalize

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:

This can devitalize the plant to the point of it starting to die back.

From Seattle Times Feb. 22, 2023

So this latter phenomenon physicians use to devitalize cancerous growths-and on the ovaries to bring on artificial menopause.

From Time Magazine Archive

Sometimes the impression of this diathesis is so intense as to devitalize the foetus in utero, causing still-birth.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

These shoots are useless, devitalize the vine, and hinder vineyard operations.

From Manual of American Grape-Growing by U. P. Hedrick

Its effect must have also been to devitalize the oxygen and nitrogen of the atmosphere.

From A Republic Without a President and Other Stories by Herbert D. (Herbert Dickinson) Ward

She was a tennis-playing nutritionist with a master's in biochemistry who was a critic of processed, "devitalized" foods and advocated for vitamin supplements.

From Salon Sep. 17, 2023

Surgeons working on the case at UMC noted in the Sunday briefing that they had found only minimal amounts of "devitalized" brain matter and had already removed it.

From Scientific American Jan. 11, 2011

Giffords, a 40-year-old Democratic lawmaker, did not have severe bleeding in the brain nor large sections of devitalized brain tissue, Lemole said.

From Reuters Jan. 9, 2011

Lemole said that the amount of "devitalized" brain tissue that they removed was small.

From Washington Post Jan. 9, 2011

REED: There will probably not be any Lancaster here next spring; the late growth has devitalized the tree.

From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Fifteenth Annual Meeting New York City, September 3, 4 and 5, 1924 by Northern Nut Growers Association

After painting for several years, he found himself distressed by "the devitalizing isolation of the studio."

From Time Magazine Archive

In the process thousands of hours of vital time were lost in conferences, argument and devitalizing hiatuses while heels and ardor cooled.

From Time Magazine Archive

This lays a considerable responsibility on those who choose psalms and hymns for congregational singing; for these can as easily be the instruments of fanatical melancholy and devitalizing, as of charitable life-giving and constructive ideas.

From The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day by Evelyn Underhill

This fact we admit; but as the effect is devitalizing, disorganizing and ultimately demoralizing, we consider the result the crowning shame rather than the crowning glory of Unitarianism.

From To Infidelity and Back by Henry F. (Henry Frey) Lutz

We receive the cast off with open arms and he comes to us with his devitalizing power.

From Imperium in Imperio: A Study of the Negro Race Problem A Novel by Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert) Griggs

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