enfeeble
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
- enfeeblement noun
- enfeebler noun
- unenfeebled adjective
Etymology
Origin of enfeeble
1300–50; Middle English enfeblen < Old French enfeblir. See en- 1, feeble
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.
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
It will forever be the least dangerous branch, but that is no reason to enfeeble it further.
From Slate • Oct. 11, 2018
Distance would enfeeble, and perhaps ultimately break, the spell; and even were it not broken, a partition-wall of defence would be erected.
From Fickle Fortune by Elisabeth Burstenbinder (AKA E. Werner)
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.
