Word.ws English Dictionary

decompensate

UK/diːˈkɒmpɛnseɪt/

decompensate verb: to deteriorate in function due to an inability to invoke normal defensive mechanisms that compensate for ailments and other stresses.

Verb

decompensate (third-person singular simple present decompensates, present participle decompensating, simple past and past participle decompensated)

  1. To deteriorate in function due to an inability to invoke normal defensive mechanisms that compensate for ailments and other stresses.
    • The infant whose heart is decompensating has a rapid pulse, rapid respirations, and respiratory distress.1967, Virginia Pidgeon, “The Infant with Congenital Heart Disease”, in The American Journal of Nursing, volume 67, number 2, page 291
    • In some cases, the fragile individual, overwhelmed by the implicit demands and expectations for sociability, coherence, and "constructive" behavior, rapidly decompensates, taking flight into psychosis or protective withdrawal.1983, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, “A Proposal for the Aftercare of Chronic Psychiatric Patients”, in Medical Anthropology Quarterly, volume 14, number 2, pages 11–12

Forms of decompensate

third-person singular presentdecompensates
present participledecompensating
past participledecompensated
pastdecompensated

Origin of decompensate

From de- + compensate.

Questions about decompensate

What does decompensate mean?
Decompensate means to deteriorate in function due to an inability to invoke normal defensive mechanisms that compensate for ailments and other stresses.
What part of speech is decompensate?
Decompensate is a verb.
How do you pronounce decompensate?
Decompensate is pronounced /diːˈkɒmpɛnseɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of decompensate?
The past tense of decompensate is decompensated.

Words near decompensate in the dictionary

  1. decompartmentalize
  2. decompartmentalized
  3. decompartmentalizes
  4. decompartmentalizing
  5. decomped
  6. decompensate
  7. decompensated
  8. decompensates
  9. decompensating
  10. decompensation
  11. decompensations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: decompensate (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: “decompensate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/decompensate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.