stultify

American  

[stuhl-tuh-fahy] / ˈstʌl təˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

stultified, stultifying

1. to render absurdly or wholly futile or ineffectual, especially by degrading or frustrating means.

   Must we stultify the progress of these reforms with yet more red tape?

   Synonyms:

   thwart, negate, impede, frustrate, dull, deaden, benumb

2. Law. to allege or prove (oneself or another person) to be of unsound mind.

3. Older Use. to make, or cause to appear, foolish or ridiculous.

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verb (used without object)

stultified, stultifying

1. to become ineffectual or impaired, especially through frustrating, stifling, or deadening conditions.

   Without an environment of encouragement and creativity, the mind can stultify.

stultify British  

/ ˈstʌltɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. to make useless, futile, or ineffectual, esp by routine

2. to cause to appear absurd or inconsistent

3. to prove (someone) to be of unsound mind and thus not legally responsible

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Other Word Forms

• nonstultification
  noun
• stultification
  noun
• stultifier
  noun
• unstultified
  adjective
• unstultifying
  adjective
• stultifyingly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of stultify

First recorded in 1760–70; from Late Latin stultificāre, equivalent to Latin stult(us) “stupid” + -i- -i- + -ficāre -fy

Explanation

When something stultifies you, it drains you of your energy, enthusiasm, or pleasure. Listening to an hour-long graduation speech on a hot, humid day might stultify you. The word stultify is sometimes used in place of to "bore" or "exhaust.” An uninspiring boss, too many rules, or a badly performed play can be stultifying. If you hang out in the hot sun all day, the stultifying heat might make you feel limp and listless. Even constant construction noise could stultify a person. To stultify a plan or person is to dampen enthusiasm in a big way.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stultify stultified stultifying

Not for Gardiner the pietistically devotional approach that can stultify.

From New York Times ● Mar. 31, 2022

Now, that can stultify a pope, in which neutrality becomes an end in itself.

From Salon ● Mar. 21, 2015

But after a while Mr. Yeston’s tuneful feast begins to satiate and eventually stultify, and by the evening’s end it’s as if you’d eaten a whole buffet of pastry.

From New York Times ● Jul. 22, 2011

The reason is the feeling in jazz that if you print something, if you write down the notes, you will stultify the music.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 12, 2010

Henry was evidently the spy, employed by Esterhazy, and afterwards Du Paty helped their machinations, in order not to stultify his own record at the original trial—at least this seems the plausible theory.

From The Letters of William James, Vol. II by James, William

Gems include a rant on critics, the assertion that the paragraph, not the sentence, is the basic unit of writing and how writing helped alleviate his stultified misery after a near-death car accident.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2025

All these lessons leave me stultified; The hours in the day just drag along — I think they’ve multiplied!

From Washington Post ● Apr. 30, 2020

The stultified senators should distract themselves with dice cricket, a game beloved by indoorsy British children.

From Slate ● Jan. 23, 2020

See the opening chase scene of Bay’s “6 Underground,” currently on Netflix, for a sense of what can be done with an emotionally stultified and dramatically trivial script.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 19, 2019

After all, as he told himself, the atmosphere of Throgmorton Street had probably stultified his outlook.

From The Passionate Elopement by MacKenzie, Compton

For Jews, the stultifying fact to be faced is that antisemitism has nothing to do with Jews.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025

Because of the SSA’s stultifying culture, Dudek said, he leaned into his insubordinate streak.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2025

Aiding this descent is Lennert Hillege’s cinematography, coolly observant of confining darkness and stultifying daylight, not quite naturalism and not quite noir.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2025

In reality, the most powerful force in the modern American city is the stultifying status quo.

From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2024

The pervasive emptiness and stultifying summer heat were only minor deterrents when compared with the more elemental consideration that all the banking and commercial institutions were based elsewhere, chiefly in Philadelphia and New York.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Related Words

• benumb
• deaden
• dull