defuse
/diːˈfjuːz/
defuse verb: to remove the fuse from (e.g. a bomb).
Verb (1)
defuse (third-person singular simple present defuses, present participle defusing, simple past and past participle defused)
- To remove the fuse from (e.g. a bomb).
- Shepard: I wear a lot of hats, Mr. Vargas. Some days I shut down criminals. Some days I defuse nukes. Some days I like to enjoy private vices. You understand me?2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria
- To make less dangerous, tense, or hostile.
- The diplomats are trying to defuse the escalating crisis.
- to defuse a hostage situation
- Synonyms:
- de-escalate
Verb (2)
IPA/dɪˈfjuːz/
defuse (third-person singular simple present defuses, present participle defusing, simple past and past participle defused)
defuse meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
defuse in Tamil
- தணி
defuse in Urdu
- فتور پیدا کرنا
defuse in Malayalam
- deactivate, disarm, disable
- നിർവീര്യമാക്കുക, പൊട്ടിത്തെറി ഒഴിവാക്കുക, സ്ഫോടനത്തിനിടയാക്കുന്ന ഭാഗം ഊരിമാറ്റുക, നിരായുധീകരിക്കുക, നിരായുധനാക്കുക, പ്രത്യാക്രമണശക്തി നശിപ്പിക്കുക
- lessen, reduce, diminish
- പൊട്ടിത്തെറി ഒഴിവാക്കുക, കുറവുവരുത്തുക, തീക്ഷ്ണത കുറയ്ക്കുക, ശമിപ്പിക്കുക, ശാന്തമാക്കുക, മാറ്റുക
defuse in Kannada
- ರಕ್ಷಾತಂತಿಯನ್ನು ತೆಗೆದುಹಾಕು, ನಿಷ್ಕ್ರಿಯಗೊಳಿಸು, ಸಡಿಲಿಸು, ಶಾಂತಗೊಳಿಸು, ತಣ್ಣಗಾಗಿಸು, ನಿರುಪಯುಕ್ತಗೊಳಿಸು
Examples of defuse in a sentence
- Shaken by the biggest challenge to their authority in years, Brazil’s leaders made conciliatory gestures on Tuesday to try to defuse the protests engulfing the nation’s cities.2013 June 18, Simon Romero, “Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders”, in New York Times, retrieved 21 Jun 2013:
- Defying this, Western queer culture actively defuses from cisnormative values, yet in so doing may also fuse with their new, queernormative value constructs.2020, Alex Stitt, ACT for Gender Identity: The Comprehensive Guide, page 202:
Synonyms of defuse
Forms of defuse
| third-person singular present | defuses |
|---|---|
| present participle | defusing |
| past participle | defused |
| past | defused |
| alternative form | defuze |
Origin of defuse
From de- + fuse.
Compare diffuse.
Words formed from defuse
Words that rhyme with defuse
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- amuse
- bemuse
- choose
- excuse
- misuse
- muse
- ooze
- peruse
- accuse
- booze
- druse
- news
- ruse
- snooze
- suffuse
- transfuse
- who's
- whose
- circumfuse
- cooze
- diffuse
- enthuse
- flues
- fuze
- jalouse
- mews
- perfuse
- snooz
- Toulouse
- twos
- yous
- 'scuse
- accrues
- aloos
- bambooze
- blooze
- boos
- boose
- brews
- canoes
- chews
- clews
- clues
- construes
- contuse
- coos
- coups
- crews
Questions about defuse
- What does defuse mean?
- Defuse means to remove the fuse from (e.g. a bomb).
- What is defuse in Tamil?
- Defuse in Tamil is தணி. See Defuse meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use defuse in a sentence?
- Shaken by the biggest challenge to their authority in years, Brazil’s leaders made conciliatory gestures on Tuesday to try to defuse the protests engulfing the nation’s cities.
- What part of speech is defuse?
- Defuse is a verb.
- How do you pronounce defuse?
- Defuse is pronounced /diːˈfjuːz/.
- What is the past tense of defuse?
- The past tense of defuse is defused.
Words near defuse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: defuse (page history and authors); defuse (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); defuse (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); defuse (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); defuse (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-defuse.wav.
Cite this entry: “defuse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/defuse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.