weaken may imply loss of physical strength, health, soundness, or stability or of quality, intensity, or effective power.
a disease that weakens the body's defenses
enfeeble implies a condition of marked weakness and helplessness.
enfeebled by starvation
debilitate suggests a less marked or more temporary impairment of strength or vitality.
the debilitating effects of surgery
undermine and sap suggest a weakening by something working surreptitiously and insidiously.
a poor diet undermines your health
drugs had sapped his ability to think
cripple implies causing a serious loss of functioning power through damaging or removing an essential part or element.
crippled by arthritis
disable suggests bringing about impairment or limitation in a physical or mental ability.
disabled by an injury sustained at work
Example Sentences
Noun He returned from war a cripple. Verb Higher taxes could cripple small businesses. an economy crippled by inflation
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Another group calling themselves the Belarusian Cyber-Partisans aimed to disrupt regime communications, cripple infrastructure and leak names and addresses of security-service members.New York Times, 30 Mar. 2022 Defense Ministry bureaucracy was also beginning cripple operations.Washington Post, 3 Sep. 2021 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s team put an emphasis on China’s anti-satellite weaponry, which could be used to sever military communications in a conflict and cripple Western economies. Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner, 1 Dec. 2020 Will that cripple teams to the point where games must be rescheduled? Mike Jones, USA TODAY, 1 July 2020 Some experts argued that Western countries could never enforce such draconian measures—which curtail human rights and cripple economies—but Italy, shocked by the strain on the health care system in the north of the country, followed suit on 9 March. Jon Cohen, Science | AAAS, 18 Mar. 2020 So a future reconciliation bill would not only cripple Obamacare and strip millions of Americans of health coverage obtained via the exchanges, but also kill the Medicaid expansion and throw millions more out of coverage. Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 7 Oct. 2016
Verb
Proposition 64, California’s 2016 landmark cannabis initiative, sold voters on the promise a legal market would cripple the drug’s outlaw trade, with its associated violence and environmental wreckage.Los Angeles Times, 8 Sep. 2022 Builders of big swimming pools and spas for custom homes in far-flung neighborhoods complained the cap could cripple their companies, and that lap pools and diving boards may become a thing of the past. Ken Ritter, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 July 2022 The political ambitions of 52 U.S. Senators seem again poised to cripple long-overdue climate reform, even after the United Nations gathered again to fret over our folly. Grayson Haver Currin, Outside Online, 1 Dec. 2021 With that protein being weak, the virus can infiltrate and cripple our immune system. Shelby Denise Smith, Essence, 30 July 2022 Train stations, dams, utilities, government buildings, air bases, ground bases, all are potential targets whose loss could cripple Ukraine’s military capability, morale, or economy. Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 7 July 2022 What may cripple one could actually be a boost for another. Matthew Meehan, Forbes, 24 June 2022 Parents, particularly non-white ones, feel this most acutely, and because parents make up a big share of crucial middle- and upper-management roles, losing them can cripple a company’s future. Bill Schaninger, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2022 The actions could send Russia’s financial market into free fall and cripple the Kremlin’s ability to pay for its new war, which has intensified in recent days.Washington Post, 25 Feb. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English cripel, from Old English crypel; akin to Old English crēopan to creep — more at creep
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a