ENFEEBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does enfeeble mean? 

• ENFEEBLE (verb)
  The verb ENFEEBLE has 1 sense:

1. make weak

  Familiarity information: ENFEEBLE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENFEEBLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they enfeeble    ... he / she / it enfeebles   
Past simple: enfeebled   
Past participle: enfeebled   
-ing form: enfeebling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make weak

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

debilitate; drain; enfeeble

Context example:

Life in the camp drained him

Hypernyms (to "enfeeble" is one way to...):

weaken (lessen the strength of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "enfeeble"):

emaciate; macerate; waste (cause to grow thin or weak)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to enfeeble Sue

Derivation:

enfeeblement (serious weakening and loss of energy)

 Context examples 

With my enfeebled health I do not know whether I shall ever be able to complete it, now that my assistant has been taken from me.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A form was near—what form, the pitch-dark night and my enfeebled vision prevented me from distinguishing.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She continued by the side of her sister, with little intermission the whole afternoon, calming every fear, satisfying every inquiry of her enfeebled spirits, supplying every succour, and watching almost every look and every breath.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I rose, bathed my head and face in water, drank a long draught; felt that though enfeebled I was not ill, and determined that to none but you would I impart this vision.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)