lobotomize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to perform a lobotomy on.
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to make (someone or something) abnormally tranquil or sluggish.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lobotomize
First recorded in 1940–45; lobotom(y) + -ize
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:
“A straight job,” she once said, “would lobotomize me.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
More than that, the entire engagement is crafted to weaken the critical faculties and lobotomize us in a robot mentality.
From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2018
OK, maybe hate is a strong word, even for a show that I felt had the capacity to lobotomize if watched as a daylong marathon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2015
Cutting out third-party cookies would lobotomize the web; blocking cookies simply cannot solve the privacy challenge.
From Forbes ● Sep. 18, 2013
But it is also fresh evidence of television's ability to lobotomize democracy.
From Time Magazine Archive
In films such as “Nocturama,” director Bonello examined individuals who seemed lobotomized by life, their futile actions a desperate attempt to bring meaning to meaninglessness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2024
Greg is a shallower thinker than most, including Tom, so insults roll off him like water off the back of a lobotomized duck.
From Salon ● May 15, 2023
"It feels like they basically lobotomized my Replika," said Andrew McCarroll, who started using Replika, with his wife's blessing, when she was experiencing mental and physical health issues.
From Reuters ● Mar. 18, 2023
Relevant parts of government have reposed inert, morally lobotomized and cowed, unwilling to take up where journalism had left off.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 12, 2018
Like how she sits lobotomized at red lights long after they turn green and doesn’t hit the gas until everyone starts honking at her.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
I began to worry: Will my excessive phone use make my daughter long for the sweet, lobotomizing glow of a high-tech rectangle, despite any screen limits I place on her?
From Slate ● Nov. 16, 2024
Even “Way too much TV / It’s lobotomizing me,” Jagger sings in one verse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2021
News arrived via Jibo itself, which said its servers would be shutting down, effectively lobotomizing it.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 26, 2019
By 1948, doctors at Pilgrim were lobotomizing more than two hundred patients a year.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 27, 2015
Empowerment A connected organization that prevents its people from taking action on the information gathered is essentially lobotomizing itself.
From Forbes ● Apr. 30, 2015
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.
