Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use stultify in a sentence

14 example sentences · verb

Stultify means to stunt, inhibit (progress, ideas, etc.) or make dull and uninteresting, especially through routine that is overly restrictive or limiting. Example: “Bureaucracy and over-regulation have stultified the economy.”

Examples of stultify by meaning

verbTo stunt, inhibit (progress, ideas, etc.) or make dull and uninteresting, especially through routine that is overly...

  • Bureaucracy and over-regulation have stultified the economy.
  • I for one find the weekly puzzle plenty big enough to satisfy, and, without a good theme, to stultify.2017 December 16, Caitlin Lovinger, “Oh, One Last Thing”, in New York Times
  • Robots excel at exactly the repetitive tasks that stultify the human mind and strain the human body.2023 December 16, “Robots Free Humans from Repetitive Tasks”, in American Institute of Economic Research

verbTo make useless or worthless.

  • His business plan was stultified by new technologies.
  • And now shall we leave him in the hands of his enemies—shall we allow them to stifle and stultify his example?1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XXXI, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906...
  • Though this facility went a long way towards solving the problems of that section of line at the time, its effects were stultified by an out-of-date signalling system and track limitations, especially in the London area.1958 May, “Modernisation of the Kent Coast Main Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 311

verbTo cause to appear foolish; to deprive of strength; to stupefy.

  • The politicians continued to stultify themselves.
  • As a judge, I cannot stultify myself to satisfy my personal feelings and inclinations.2017, “Why Me?” (27:33 from the start), in The Deuce, season 1, episode 6, spoken by Judge Aaron Bressler (Stephen Singer), HBO

More sentences with stultify

  • Was it just me or did you find everyone in high school stultifying?2016, 35:54 from the start, in Carrie Pilby, spoken by Carrie Pilby (Bel Powley). From the entry stultifying
  • Sullen now, with stultified spleen, Mrs Dibble grappled her crutches and levered herself upright after an ungainly struggle.1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 150. From the entry lever
  • The always impressive Spall elevates this low-key mood piece a little, but even his skill as an actor can’t save the stultifying pacing.2022 September 4, Wendy Ide, “It Snows in Benidorm review – Timothy Spall is the bright spot in overcast drama”, in The Observer. From the entry mood piece
  • Indeed, the government’s stultifying response betrays an attitude reminiscent of the old mission vicar: only we know what’s really good for them (see Scullion above).2017 October 27, Paul Daley, “The whole recognition process has a deep colonial resonance”, in The Guardian. From the entry stultifying
  • And, as audience members, we have all experienced death by PowerPoint, the comatose state that results from being subjected to one stultifying slide after another.2008, Mary Civiello and Arlene Matthews, Communication Counts, Business Presentations for Busy People, Safari Books Online, John Wiley and…. From the entry death by PowerPoint
  • If he refused, another would have gone down to posterity as a greater than he in his own village; if he accepted, he stultified his own words.1902, Basil Thomson, “Westward Ho!”, in Savage Island: An Account of a Sojourn in Niué and Tonga, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages…. From the entry on the horns of a dilemma

Meaning of stultify

  1. verb To stunt, inhibit (progress, ideas, etc.) or make dull and uninteresting, especially through routine that is overly restrictive or limiting.
  2. verb To make useless or worthless.
  3. verb To cause to appear foolish; to deprive of strength; to stupefy.

Full definition of stultify

Questions about stultify in a sentence

How do you use stultify in a sentence?
Stultify is used as a verb. For example: “Bureaucracy and over-regulation have stultified the economy.”
What is a short sentence with stultify?
“The politicians continued to stultify themselves.”
What does stultify mean?
Stultify means to stunt, inhibit (progress, ideas, etc.) or make dull and uninteresting, especially through routine that is overly restrictive or limiting.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stultify (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use stultify in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/stultify. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.