Destabilize

verb

verb ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make something unstable. transitive

    "As part of its application, Macy's submitted "balloon control plans" describing how handlers, under the direction of a "pilot," were to navigate through intersections, where crosswinds can destabilize the balloons."

  2. 2
    make unstable wordnet
  3. 3
    To become unstable. intransitive
  4. 4
    become unstable wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
destabilise

Example

More examples

""Let me be clear. Sexual and gender-based violence in conflict is not only a horrendous and life-changing crime, most often perpetrated against women and girls. It is also used as a tactic of war, to terrorize families, dehumanize communities and destabilize societies, so that they struggle to recover for years or even decades after the guns fall silent," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said."

Etymology

From de- + stabilize.

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