Degauss

//diːˈɡaʊs// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act by which something is degaussed.
Verb
  1. 1
    To reduce or eliminate the magnetic field from (the hull of a ship, or a computer monitor, etc.). transitive

    "Despite sustaining some damage from air attacks, it was used as a mooring point for large landing crafts with a deep draught in the lead-up to the D-Day landings, and later for the purpose of degaussing vessels."

  2. 2
    make nonmagnetic; take away the magnetic properties (of) wordnet

Example

More examples

"Despite sustaining some damage from air attacks, it was used as a mooring point for large landing crafts with a deep draught in the lead-up to the D-Day landings, and later for the purpose of degaussing vessels."

Etymology

From de- + gauss (“unit of magnetic field strength”). A neologism coined by then-Commander Charles F. Goodeve, RCNVR, during World War II.

Related phrases

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