debilitate
/dɪˈbɪlɪteɪt/US/dəˈbɪləteɪt/
debilitate verb: to make feeble; to weaken.
Verb
debilitate (third-person singular simple present debilitates, present participle debilitating, simple past and past participle debilitated)
- To make feeble; to weaken.
- The American Dream suffered a debilitating effect after the subprime crisis.
- The personal desire to forget is one thing, if practiced by historians it debilitates history.1986 February 15, Denis M. Sweet, “A Sobering History from Weimar to the Ovens”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 39, page B3
Adjective
debilitate (comparative more debilitate, superlative most debilitate)
- Feeble, enfeebled.
- It is powerfull in helping extenuat and leane perſons who are troubled with difficultie of drawing their Brath: gives vigour and ſtrength to vithered and debilitat members; […]1618, Patri[c]k Anderson, The Colde Spring of Kinghorne Craig […], Edinburgh: Thomas Finlason, unnumbered page
debilitate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
debilitate in Tamil
- வலு இழக்கச் செய்தல், வலு இழப்பு
debilitate in Urdu
- کمزور کرنا, لاغر کرنا, ناتواں بنانا
debilitate in Malayalam
- enfeeble, weaken, enervate
- ക്ഷയിപ്പിക്കുക, ദുർബ്ബലമാക്കുക, ശക്തി ക്ഷയിപ്പിക്കുക, ബലം കെടുത്തുക, ബലക്ഷയം വരുത്തുക, അവശനാക്കുക
debilitate in Kannada
- ದುರ್ಬಲಮಾಡು, ನಿತ್ರಾಣಗೊಳಿಸು, ಕುಗ್ಗಿಸು, ಶಕ್ತಿಗುಂದಿಸು
Synonyms of debilitate
Forms of debilitate
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | debilitates |
| present participle | debilitating |
| past participle | debilitated |
| past | debilitated |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more debilitate |
| superlative | most debilitate |
Origin of debilitate
From debilitatus, the past passive participle of Latin dēbilitō (“to weaken, debilitate”), from the adjective dēbilis (“weak”), itself from de- + habilis (“able”). Equivalent to Latin dēbilitō + -ate (verb-forming suffix; adjective-forming suffix).
Words formed from debilitate
Questions about debilitate
- What does debilitate mean?
- Debilitate means to make feeble; to weaken.
- What is debilitate in Tamil?
- Debilitate in Tamil is வலு இழக்கச் செய்தல், வலு இழப்பு. See Debilitate meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is debilitate?
- Debilitate can be a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce debilitate?
- Debilitate is pronounced /dɪˈbɪlɪteɪt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of debilitate?
- The past tense of debilitate is debilitated.
Words near debilitate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: debilitate (page history and authors); debilitate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); debilitate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); debilitate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); debilitate (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-debilitate.wav.
Cite this entry: “debilitate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/debilitate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.