Defang

//diːˈfæŋ// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To remove the fangs from (something). transitive

    "The snake was defanged."

  2. 2
    remove the fangs from wordnet
  3. 3
    To render (something) harmless. figuratively, transitive

    "The Government's new security supremo, Admiral Sir Alan West, said the danger from home-grown and foreign terrorists was at its greatest level ever, and warned that it could take up to 15 years to defang Islamic radicalism."

Synonyms

All synonyms
declawdeclawdetoothnerf

Example

More examples

"The Government's new security supremo, Admiral Sir Alan West, said the danger from home-grown and foreign terrorists was at its greatest level ever, and warned that it could take up to 15 years to defang Islamic radicalism."

Etymology

From de- + fang.

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