debilitating
/dɪˈbɪlɪteɪtɪŋ(ɡ)/
debilitating adjective: causing a loss of energy or strength. Also the present participle and gerund of debilitate.
Adjective
debilitating (comparative more debilitating, superlative most debilitating)
- Causing a loss of energy or strength.
- Akeley, Noyes hastened to inform me, was glad and ready to see me; although his sudden attack of asthma would prevent him from being a very competent host for a day or two. These spells hit him hard when they came, and were always accompanied by a debilitating fever and general weakness.1931, H.P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer in Darkness
- All of which is to say – my OCD is back. For those of you who have not had the displeasure, OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and it is an absolute arseache. Again, at best. Utterly debilitating and life-ruining at worst.2025 October 20, Lucy Mangan, “My OCD is back. It's exhausting and awful, but this time I'm ready”, in The i Paper, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2025
Also used as
debilitating is also the present participle and gerund of debilitate.
debilitating meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Punjabi
debilitating in Hindi
- कमजोर करने वाला
debilitating in Marathi
- दुर्बल करणारा
debilitating in Urdu
- کمزور کرنے والا
debilitating in Punjabi
- ਕਮਜ਼ੋਰ ਕਰਨ ਵਾਲਾ
Examples of debilitating in a sentence
- The American Dream suffered a debilitating effect after the subprime crisis.
- Hypoadrenalism is a most debilitating disorder affecting the adrenal glands that leaves one with very little energy no matter how or what one tries to increase one’s energy.
- They can carry debilitating diseases like dengue, chikungunya or zika, which can lead to birth defects.
Forms of debilitating
| comparative | more debilitating |
|---|---|
| superlative | most debilitating |
Words formed from debilitating
Questions about debilitating
- What does debilitating mean?
- Debilitating means causing a loss of energy or strength.
- What is debilitating in Hindi?
- Debilitating in Hindi is कमजोर करने वाला. See Debilitating meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is debilitating?
- Debilitating is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce debilitating?
- Debilitating is pronounced /dɪˈbɪlɪteɪtɪŋ(ɡ)/ (UK).
Words near debilitating in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: debilitating (page history and authors); debilitating (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); debilitating (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); debilitating (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); debilitating (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-debilitating.wav.
Cite this entry: “debilitating.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/debilitating. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.