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

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Etymology

Origin of stultify

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

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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

He puts the yawn into stultify, the stupefy into catatonia, stone-facedly delivering the exact same chords, licks, and nasal delivery for over three decades over a backbeat that would have lost the Boer War.

From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2012

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

So when this cafeteria culture hits the big city, does the collision somehow stultify economic activity? Cities, after all, need people out on the sidewalks.

From New York Times ● Jul. 2, 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

In prosperity he is dull and melancholy; the yellow dross seems to weigh down his spirit, to stultify it; empty his pockets, and it etherialises him.

From The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature All volumes by Various

In the last section, Elvis is stultified and oppressed, sapped of color and life, isolated in his “golden cage” at the International Hotel in Vegas.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2022

Now they had been moved to this motel with its shared toilets and atmosphere of stultified trauma.

From New York Times ● Aug. 4, 2020

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

One can hardly wonder at Erskine's condemnation of his brother-in-law, out of his own mouth, as a stultified young fraud in the matter of Lord Manister.

From Tiny Luttrell by Ernest William Hornung

When I walked into the arcade, I experienced a feeling I’d stuffed down into my subconscious for decades: the stultifying awkwardness of a middle school dance.

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026

The setting needn’t be explicitly Norway, but the stultifying strictures of this middle-class world must be in place for Ibsen’s vision to have its detonating effect.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026

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

“What are these? Visual aids for civics or some other equally stultifying high school subject?”

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

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Related Words

• benumb
• deaden
• dull

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