enfeeble

/ɛnˈfibəl/

Other forms: enfeebled; enfeebling; enfeebles

To enfeeble is to make someone or something very weak or fragile. Your governor's budget cuts might enfeeble the state's public school system.

If an illness weakens you — makes you feel frail and shaky — it enfeebles you. Aging enfeebles us, and the lack of Vitamin D in the winter also enfeebles many people. You can also say that making it harder for people to vote enfeebles the democratic process. The verb enfeeble combines the prefix en-, "cause to be," with feeble, with its Latin root flebilis, "that is to be wept over."

Definitions of enfeeble

1. verb

   make weak
   synonyms: debilitate, drain

   types:

   emaciate, macerate, waste

   cause to grow thin or weak

   type of:

   nerf, weaken

   lessen the strength of