devitalize
verbEtymology From de- + vitalize.
1
Figuratively To deprive of vitality; to make lifeless; to weaken.
- Near-synonym: deanimate
- Noncrushing surgical clamps avoid devitalizing the cells of arterial walls.
2 more examples
- Economic stress has devitalized some shopping malls in the web era.
- Not so long ago a Scotsman is reported to have exhumed the body of his daughter and burnt her heart, as he thought she was devitalising her remaining brother and sister and making them ill.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 126:
- Related terms
- devitalization