inactivate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make inactive.
The bomb was inactivated.
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Immunology. to stop the activity of (certain biological substances).
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of inactivate
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:
Meanwhile, Salk’s injectable vaccine, which used formalin to inactivate the virus, was approved in 1955.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
Pasteurization and proper cooking techniques inactivate the virus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2024
“The decision to inactivate comes after concerns about clinical processes and documentation were identified,” the hospital said in a statement.
From New York Times ● Apr. 29, 2024
By engineering the mouse embryo to kill or inactivate its own olfactory neurons, the researchers could easily determine if rat neurons had restored the animals' sense of smell.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2024
Extracts in which no attempt was made to inactivate the enzymes present proved unsatisfactory.
From Myology and Serology of the Avian Family Fringillidae A Taxonomic Study by Stallcup, William B.
"We discovered that, in conditions of high blood pressure, the lateral parafacial region is activated and, when our team inactivated this region, blood pressure fell to normal levels."
From Science Daily ● Mar. 22, 2026
That means someone inherits two copies of an inactivated gene.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
Use of gene therapies becomes more challenging as patients age and grow, because treating them often requires higher doses of the inactivated viruses used to deliver the replacement genes.
From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025
In flu, the inactivated flu injection that is given to adults is updated every year - as is the live vaccine that is given to children as a nasal spray.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2025
If a mutation inactivated even one function, the mold would be unable to grow—unless the missing ingredient was supplied back into the broth.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The results highlight acidity as a key factor in inactivating the pathogen during cheesemaking.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2025
The vaccine, which cost pennies per dose, was made like the human one, by growing the virus in eggs and then inactivating it with chemicals.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 6, 2023
Phosphorylation adds a phosphate group to serine, threonine, and tyrosine residues in a protein, changing their shapes, and activating or inactivating the protein.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, the placement of UV-C lamps in the air ducts or above dropped ceilings, is extremely effective at inactivating the coronavirus and influenza viruses and even tuberculosis bacteria.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 3, 2022
Now the newer study contends that inactivating the virus in the mouth’s saliva and mucous membranes could help reduce infection in the adjoining nasopharyngeal area, too.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 24, 2022
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.
