Debilitate

//dəˈbɪləteɪt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make feeble; to weaken. transitive

    "The American Dream suffered a debilitating effect after the subprime crisis."

  2. 2
    make weak wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
enfeebleenfeebleweakenemasculateabateafflict

Example

More examples

"The American Dream suffered a debilitating effect after the subprime crisis."

Etymology

From debilitatus, the past passive participle of Latin dēbilitō (“to weaken, debilitate”), from the adjective dēbilis (“weak”), itself from de- + habilis (“able”). Equivalent to Latin dēbilitō + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.