debilitate
verb
Did you know?
Debilitate, enfeeble, undermine, and sap all share the general sense "to weaken." But while debilitate holds the distinction among these words of coming from the Latin word for "weak"—debilis—it packs a potent punch. Often used of disease or something that strikes like a disease or illness, debilitate might suggest a temporary impairment—but a pervasive one at that. Enfeeble, a very close synonym of debilitate, connotes a pitiable, but often reversible, condition of weakness and helplessness. Undermine and sap suggest a weakening by something working surreptitiously and insidiously.
Examples of debilitate in a Sentence
Annie Ma,
Los Angeles Times,
2 July 2026
They've also been angered by Kennedy's attempts to link vaccines to autism, going against decades of research that show no such link, and his framing of autism as a debilitating disease.
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ABC News,
1 July 2026
Fati, once a prodigious talent who broke numerous records and inherited Lionel Messi's number 10 shirt, saw his promising career at the club severely impacted by a series of debilitating knee injuries.
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Tom Sanderson,
Forbes.com,
30 June 2026
Would society trend toward debilitating mass unemployment or the joyful end of work?
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Annie Lowrey,
The Atlantic,
29 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for debilitate
Cite this Entry
“Debilitate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/debilitate. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
debilitate
verb
Medical Definition
debilitate
transitive verb
