enfeeble
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
enfeeblesimple
-
enfeeblessimple
-
have enfeebledperfect
-
has enfeebledperfect
-
am enfeeblingprogressive
-
are enfeeblingprogressive
-
is enfeeblingprogressive
-
have been enfeeblingperfect progressive
-
has been enfeeblingperfect progressive
Past
-
enfeebledsimple
-
had enfeebledperfect
-
was enfeeblingprogressive
-
were enfeeblingprogressive
-
had been enfeeblingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of enfeeble
1300–50; Middle English enfeblen < Old French enfeblir. See en- 1, feeble
Explanation
To enfeeble is to make someone or something very weak or fragile. Your governor's budget cuts might enfeeble the state's public school system. If an illness weakens you — makes you feel frail and shaky — it enfeebles you. Aging enfeebles us, and the lack of Vitamin D in the winter also enfeebles many people. You can also say that making it harder for people to vote enfeebles the democratic process. The verb enfeeble combines the prefix en-, "cause to be," with feeble, with its Latin root flebilis, "that is to be wept over."
Vocabulary lists containing enfeeble
President Obama's Farewell Address
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
This Week In Words: August 30–September 4, 2020
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Dawn
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Partisanship, the first president observed, “serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026
In a letter to Dr. Gabadadze and other deans, they wrote that they worried about setting “a precedent, completely lacking in due process, that could undermine faculty freedoms and correspondingly enfeeble proven pedagogic practices.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 3, 2022
Their goal is to blunt and enfeeble criticism and distract from its truthfulness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2022
Abood held fast for several decades in the face of a well-funded movement to reverse the decision and enfeeble public sector unions.
From Slate ● Dec. 7, 2017
Geld, geld, v.t. to emasculate, castrate: to spay: to deprive of anything essential, to enfeeble: to deprive of anything objectionable.—ns.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
But knowing the hallmarks of classic style will make anyone a better writer, and it is the strongest cure I know for the disease that enfeebles academic, bureaucratic, corporate, legal, and official prose.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Or it is the heart, which hastens or slackens its beats, or makes them irregular, or enfeebles, or augments them.
From The Mind and the Brain Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps by Binet, Alfred
No sorrow for the past, no gloomy foreboding of the future, no remorse, disappointment, nor anxiety depresses the spirits and enfeebles the vital powers.
From The Mother's Manual of Children's Diseases by West, Charles
But while such a liquid attacks with special energy the yellow and green, it enfeebles the whole spectrum.
From Fragments of science, V. 1-2 by Tyndall, John
Not only does it hasten their decay to allow seeds to ripen, but materially enfeebles the entire plant.
From Little Folks (Septemeber 1884) A Magazine for the Young by Various
The former Red Army is in an enfeebled state.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
She engenders compassion as Elisabeth grapples with her aging body, and a scene where she is enfeebled and struggles to get out of a chair is both achingly painful and achingly funny.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2024
Initially prematurely aged and enfeebled because of the conniving evil wizard Saruman, he is restored to vitality by the good wizard Gandalf.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2024
Added to this, Congress, which governed India for decades, looks enfeebled and in decline.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2024
The tree was not only stripped by the cold season, it seemed weary from age, enfeebled, dry.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
His balding head’s scraggly hair—in contrast to the wigs worn by just about every Frenchman at the time, no matter the social class—is both ennobling and a bit enfeebling, like an aging but distinguished mane.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
They fear that the enfeebling of the judiciary will compromise the rule of law and make the economy unattractive for investment.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
It’s an image that evokes an enfeebling combination of envy and rage, as it becomes increasingly clear that the botters are perpetually one step ahead of our mere keyboards and mouses.
From The Verge ● May 25, 2022
These are things the Europeans agree need to be addressed, but not by enfeebling the nuclear deal which, they say, is crucial to their security.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2018
An enfeebling spell seemed to have been taken off his mind; and the lassitude of doubt and indecision was gone.
From The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III) A Tale by James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
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.
