enervate
Americanverb (used with object)
adjective
verb
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
enervatesimple
-
enervatessimple
-
have enervatedperfect
-
has enervatedperfect
-
am enervatingprogressive
-
are enervatingprogressive
-
is enervatingprogressive
-
have been enervatingperfect progressive
-
has been enervatingperfect progressive
Past
-
enervatedsimple
-
had enervatedperfect
-
was enervatingprogressive
-
were enervatingprogressive
-
had been enervatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of enervate
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin ēnervātus “weakened” (past participle of ēnervāre “to weaken”), equivalent to ē- “from, out of” + nerv(us) “sinew” + -ātus adjective suffix; see origin at e- 1, nerve, -ate 1; compare Anglo-French enervir, French énerver
Explanation
To enervate is to weaken, wear down, or even bum out. Although a three-hour lecture on the history of socks might thrill someone, it would enervate most people. So would a too-long soak in a hot tub. With your parents. Trace enervate back far enough and you'll discover that it comes from the Latin enervare which means basically “to cut the sinew” or “to cause to be cut from the muscle.” That would certainly weaken someone. These days, there’s no need for violence. To enervate someone is to sap their energy, like by reading your ex all the love letters your new sweetheart wrote you. When something enervates you, it does more than get on your nerves; it brings you down.
Vocabulary lists containing enervate
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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:
Removing this key link of Westlake Avenue at this critical juncture could undo much of the recovery we’ve fought for and permanently enervate the small businesses of South Lake Union.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 9, 2024
In humans most serotonin is synthesized in neurons that enervate smooth muscle cells lining the gastrointestinal tract.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
Family crises that some might view as a call to action mostly just enervate her: She doesn’t need another reminder that middle age can be overwhelmingly hard and ponderously boring.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 14, 2022
Worries over the potential of technology to isolate and enervate citizens long predate Max Headroom, to be sure.
From Slate ● Nov. 29, 2019
The voyage by boat, however, would probably enervate me, and I am certainly not perverse enough to attempt air travel even if I were able to afford it.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
It enervates a person, and what’s the point in that?
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 13, 2023
And nothing enervates me more than raw tortilla.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2018
Food is fuel, the right kind can energize the wrong kind enervates.
From Scientific American ● May 16, 2012
His pedantic style more often enervates than inspires.
From Time Magazine Archive
If I could go back again into my early self—I wish I could—but the artificial life so perverts and enervates one, I hardly know, honestly, what I wish.
From Willing to Die by Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan
Unfortunately for the Kraken, they looked far more enervated in Monday’s Game 7 than they did energized.
From Seattle Times ● May 15, 2023
The enervated officials in question are tracked down and interviewed about how they had a moment of weakness but are fully committed to the task at hand.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 18, 2022
This is an actor who last year transformed Samuel Beckett’s enervated Gogo, from the Druid’s “Waiting for Godot,” into the human equivalent of a pogo stick.
From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2019
But in retrospect, I was fortunate to be too enervated to read much social media or to take in any reviews.
From Salon ● May 21, 2019
He took to his bed, eventually so enervated that he was forced to take an indefinite leave from his job at the shipyard.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
The result is flattening and enervating, and my dissatisfaction was apparently shared by others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Yet when he spoke following the haphazard 2-1 Europa League defeat on Thursday, there was a enervating familiarity about how the Rangers head coach explained away the outcome.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2025
Rachel — despite her challenges with Celeste, her old lover David, her ailing ex-husband and her enervating work life — also discovers good things about her new life as her body changes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2023
Tired: I think of these enervating interruptions as “The Dead See Scrolls.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 3, 2022
Avoid it unless the meaning is clear. enervating.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
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.
