neutralize
[noo-truh-lahyz, nyoo-]
- to make neutral; cause to undergo neutralization.
- to make (something) ineffective; counteract; nullify: carelessness that neutralized our efforts.
- Military. to put out of action or make incapable of action: to neutralize an enemy position.
- to declare neutral; invest with neutrality in order to exempt from involvement during a war: to neutralize a city to prevent bombing.
- to add an acid to a basic solution or a base to an acidic solution until the resulting solution is chemically neutral (pH = 7).
- Electricity. to render electrically or magnetically neutral.
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- to become neutral or neutralized; undergo neutralization: With this additive the solution begins to neutralize.
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Also especially British, neu·tral·ise.
Origin of neutralize
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for neutralize
Contemporary Examples
The serum failed to neutralize the virus in subsequent tests and seemed to offer little protection in animal experiments.
It is fair to assume that the IDF would move immediately to neutralize the threat.
The letter that Indian M.P.s wrote was an effort to exert counter-pressure and neutralize that campaign.
Unless we neutralize the air assets with the no-fly zone, this bleeding will continue.
Free Syrian Army Gen. Salem Idris Yet to Hear From D.C. About Promised ‘Military Support’Josh Rogin
June 17, 2013
He posed a challenge for the church: he was too revered not to claim, too radical not to neutralize.
Historical Examples
This will neutralize the acid and prevent it from rotting the wood.
The Automobile Storage BatteryO. A. Witte
This helps to neutralize the acid and keep it from injuring the wood or cement.
The Automobile Storage BatteryO. A. Witte
This will neutralize any acid which may be present in the moisture.
The Automobile Storage BatteryO. A. Witte
He can take nothing away, but only cauterize and neutralize, he says, so why not let him try?
Death of a SpacemanWalter M. Miller
If we tried it this close, we'd just be trying to neutralize the sun's gravity.
Islands of SpaceJohn W Campbell
neutralize
neutralise
- (also intr) to render or become ineffective or neutral by counteracting, mixing, etc; nullify
- (also intr) to make or become electrically or chemically neutral
- to exclude (a country) from the sphere of warfare or alliances by international agreementthe great powers neutralized Belgium in the 19th century
- to render (an army) incapable of further military action
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for neutralize
v.
1734, "to render neutral" (in a chemical sense), from French neutraliser (17c.), from neutral (see neutral (adj.)). Meaning "to counterbalance, to kill by opposing" is from 1795. Related: Neutralized; neutralizing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
neutralize
[nōō′trə-līz′]
- To cause an acidic solution to become neutral by adding a base to it or to cause a basic solution to become neutral by adding an acid to it. Salt and water are usually formed in the process.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.