Word.ws English Dictionary

debellate

debellate verb: to conquer (someone) in war; to subdue.

Verb

debellate (third-person singular simple present debellates, present participle debellating, simple past and past participle debellated)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To conquer (someone) in war; to subdue.
    • They [the French] deſire (king Edward [III] grovvne aged) not to ſeeme by ſitting ſtill vpon ſo many thornes of diſgrace, and loſſe, to haue beene outvvarred, though ouer-vvarred, and though in tvvo or three battels inferior, yet not to haue beene clearly debellated.1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Edward the Third, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John...
    • It doth notably set forth the consent of all nations and ages, in the approbation of the extirpating and debellating of giants, monsters, and foreign tyrants, not only as lawful, but as meritorious even of divine honour.1622 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “An Advertisement Touching an Holy Warre. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S....

Forms of debellate

third-person singular presentdebellates
present participledebellating
past participledebellated
pastdebellated

Origin of debellate

First attested in 1611; borrowed from Latin dēbellātus, perfect passive participle of dēbellō (“to subdue”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Doublet of debel.

Questions about debellate

What does debellate mean?
Debellate means to conquer (someone) in war; to subdue.
What part of speech is debellate?
Debellate is a verb.
What is the past tense of debellate?
The past tense of debellate is debellated.

Words near debellate in the dictionary

  1. debeards
  2. debeige
  3. debeiges
  4. debel
  5. Debelius
  6. debellate
  7. debellated
  8. debellates
  9. debellating
  10. debellatio
  11. debellation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: debellate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “debellate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/debellate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.