debilitate

See also: debilitātē, and debilitāte

English

Etymology

From debilitatus, the past passive participle of Latin dēbilitō (“to weaken, debilitate”), from the adjective dēbilis (“weak”), itself from de- +‎ habilis (“able”). Equivalent to Latin dēbilitō +‎ -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈbɪlɪteɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /dəˈbɪləteɪt/

Verb

debilitate (third-person singular simple present debilitates, present participle debilitating, simple past and past participle debilitated)

1. (transitive) To make feeble; to weaken.

   Synonyms: enervate, enfeeble, weaken

   The American Dream suffered a debilitating effect after the subprime crisis.

   • 2015 March 12, Daniel Taylor, “Chelsea out of Champions League after Thiago Silva sends 10-man PSG through on away goals”, in The Guardian (London)‎:

     Twice, they found themselves behind, seemingly on their way out, and on both occasions they absolutely refused to let their lack of numbers debilitate them.

Derived terms

• debilitative

 

Related terms

• debile
• debility
• debilitation
• debilitating

Translations

to make feeble; to weaken

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: отслабвам (bg) (otslabvam), омаломощавам (bg) (omalomoštavam) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Czech: oslabit Dutch: verzwakken (nl) Finnish: heikentää (fi) French: débiliter (fr) German: an den Kräften zehren, schwächen (de), entkräften (de) Greek: αποχαυνώνω (el) (apochavnóno) Icelandic: veikja Ido: debiligar (io) Japanese: 弱化する (ja) (jakka suru) Latin: debilito Maori: whakangoikore Norwegian: Bokmål: svekke, svekkes Nynorsk: svekke, svekkje, svekkast, svekkjast Russian: ослабля́ть (ru) (oslabljátʹ) Scottish Gaelic: lagaich Spanish: debilitar (es)

See also

• enervate

Further reading

• “debilitate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “debilitate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Interlingua

Noun

debilitate (plural debilitates)

1. weakness

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

debilitate

1. inflection of debilitare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

debilitate f pl

1. feminine plural of debilitato

Latin

Verb

dēbilitāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēbilitō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French débilité. Equivalent to debil +‎ -itate.

Noun

debilitate f (plural debilități)

1. debility

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(o) debilitate	debilitatea	(niște) debilități	debilitățile
genitive/dative	(unei) debilități	debilității	(unor) debilități	debilităților
vocative	debilitate, debilitateo		debilităților

Declension of debilitate

Spanish

Verb

debilitate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of debilitar combined with te