Word.ws English Dictionary

destim

destim verb: to intentionally block out overwhelming stimuli in order to avoid sensory overload.

Verb

destim (third-person singular simple present destims, present participle destimming, simple past and past participle destimmed)

  1. (slang, autism) To intentionally block out overwhelming stimuli in order to avoid sensory overload.
    • I got overwhelmed by the loud music and had to go into another room to destim.
    • Of course once the window was shut and I spent a few moments destimming with headphones, I was able to move forward. But I think it's such a good example of what we mean by overstimulation and how it can be a cumulative unseen process as well as an instant one.2020 July 16, @littlehux, Twitter, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2024

Examples of destim in a sentence

  • Actually, the lesson is to teach your child to recognize when they're overstimulated and teach them how to actively destim and regulate in the moment.2022 December 19, u/Inevitable_Librarian, “Got a new fude nib today!”, in Reddit, r/fountainpens, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2024:
  • Okay, I am home, have ate,^([sic]) destimmed a bit, & cried a lot.2023 February 16, @ChaiCiLatte, Twitter, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2024:

Forms of destim

third-person singular presentdestims
present participledestimming
past participledestimmed
pastdestimmed

Origin of destim

Clipping of destimulate. Equivalent to de- + stim.

Questions about destim

What does destim mean?
Destim means to intentionally block out overwhelming stimuli in order to avoid sensory overload.
How do you use destim in a sentence?
Actually, the lesson is to teach your child to recognize when they're overstimulated and teach them how to actively destim and regulate in the moment.
What part of speech is destim?
Destim is a verb.
What is the past tense of destim?
The past tense of destim is destimmed.

Words near destim in the dictionary

  1. destigmatized
  2. destigmatizer
  3. destigmatizers
  4. destigmatizes
  5. destigmatizing
  6. destim
  7. destimmed
  8. destimming
  9. destims
  10. destimulant
  11. destimulants

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: destim (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)-Flame, not lame-destim.wav.

Cite this entry: “destim.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/destim. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.