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Showing results for devitalize. Search instead for Devitalized.
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

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

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

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

It says, and truly, that a wishy-washy sheet such as it, with its devitalized, strained, and bolted reports of the world’s vivid happenings, deserves to go under from sheer lack of interest.

From Carmen Ariza by Charles Francis Stocking

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

There are many emotions that are harbored on occasions, which are devitalizing and destructive.

From Vitality Supreme by Bernarr Macfadden

They discovered how tired they were, and the devitalizing heat added to the general torpor.

From Land of the Burnt Thigh by Stephen J. Voorhies

During the nineteenth century their control was absolute, and what we are today we have become through this dominance, coupled with the general devitalizing or abandonment of religion.

From Towards the Great Peace by Ralph Adams Cram

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