Word.ws English Dictionary

defused

defused is the simple past and past participle of defuse.

Meaning of defuse

Verb (1)

defuse (third-person singular simple present defuses, present participle defusing, simple past and past participle defused)

  1. (transitive) 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
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To make less dangerous, tense, or hostile.
    • The diplomats are trying to defuse the escalating crisis.
    Synonyms:
    de-escalate

Verb (2)

defuse (third-person singular simple present defuses, present participle defusing, simple past and past participle defused)

  1. (obsolete) To disorder; to make shapeless.
    • If but as well I other accents borrow / That can my speech defuse,c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Words formed from defused

Questions about defused

What is defused the simple past and past participle of?
Defused is the simple past and past participle of defuse.

Words near defused in the dictionary

  1. defurs
  2. defusable
  3. defusal
  4. defusals
  5. defuse
  6. defused
  7. defuser
  8. defusers
  9. defuses
  10. defusing
  11. defusion

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: defused (page history and authors); defuse (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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