Detoxify

verb

verb ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To remove foreign and harmful substances from something. transitive

    "As a result of this, in some way or other, unknown to us, a diminished power of oxidation results and the organism loses the power to detoxify substances absorbed from the intestine which have been present there in excess; […]"

  2. 2
    treat for alcohol or drug dependence wordnet
  3. 3
    To make something that is harmful more benign. transitive

    "We can either break as a nation or find a way to detoxify our politics."

  4. 4
    remove poison from wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
detoxicatedetoxdetoxicatedetoxificatesober

Antonyms

All antonyms
toxify

Example

More examples

"In order to detoxify from staying up late and partying, my cousin drinks apricot smoothies."

Etymology

Attested since 1905 (twelve years earlier than toxify), from de- + tox- + -ify. (Detoxicate is attested one year earlier, since 1904.)

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