figurative. transitive. Of disease, hunger, or a similar physical cause: to lay (a person) low, to render prostrate; to incapacitate. Also: †to kill…

To consume or destroy (a person or living thing, his body, strength) by decay or disease; to cause to pine, emaciate, enfeeble; to undermine the…

transitive. To make faint or weak, depress, enfeeble, weaken. Rare in modern use. Also impersonal it faints me.

transitive. To render dull; to blunt, weaken; to deprive of sanity.

transitive. To soften (literal and figurative); to cause to become slack or limp; to weaken. Also (occasionally) intransitive with object implied. Obs…

transitive. To make faint; to enfeeble.

transitive. To destroy the vigour or vitality of; to cause to waste, wither, or languish. Obsolete.

To relax, weaken, enfeeble, in body or bodily strength. Obsolete.

transitive. To make weak or weaker, to weaken or enfeeble. Also figurative.

To impair or break down in health; to render infirm. Usually in past participle: Broken down in health, decrepit, infirm. crazed in his wind (of a…

transitive. To render feeble, weak, or infirm; to enfeeble; = feeble, v. 2.

= debilitate, v.

transitive. To overcome with weakness; to enfeeble.

figurative. transitive. Usually with down: to bring down, bring low; to humble, humiliate. Obsolete.

to bring low: to bring to a poor or undesirable condition, with respect to health, wealth, strength, or circumstances; to humble; (also) to bring…

transitive. To render weak; to weaken, enfeeble.

transitive. To weaken, impair, or enfeeble.

To cause (the body or faculties) to fail in vital energy, health, or beauty.

transitive. To make physically infirm or frail; to weaken, impair the strength of. Obsolete.

To lessen the physical strength or vigour of (an animal or plant, its parts or organs); to lessen the functional vigour of (an organ or an organic…

transitive. To enfeeble.

To weaken physically (a person or animal); now only of agencies that impair nervous ‘tone’, as luxury, indolence, hot or malarious climates.

transitive. To make feeble, weaken.

Medicine. To destroy the vitality of (a part of the body). Obsolete. rare.

transitive. To bring low; to humble, humiliate; to weaken, enfeeble, deplete; to lower the spirits of, to depress. Cf. pluck, v. 5b.

transitive. To cast down or lay low; = prostern, v.

figurative. with object (the health or strength of) a person, his body or mind.

transitive. To stretch at full length (also, all along); hence, to lay low, prostrate; to destroy, overthrow, kill.

transitive. To weaken the sinews of; to render weak or feeble; to enervate.

transitive. To make faint, weak, or languid.

= enervate, v. in various senses.

transitive. With adverb implied by the context. = to pull down at phrasal verbs (in various senses); esp. to bring low, weaken (= to pull down 1 at…

transitive. To deprive of essential quality, vigour, or force; to weaken to deprive of animation; to deprive (liquor) of its spirit, to render flat…

transitive. To make weak or feeble; to deprive of strength. Cf. imbecile, adj. 1a.

To render lax or weak; to disorder (the nerves, etc.).

transitive. To make (a person's health, constitution, etc.) decline or worsen; to cause (a person) to become feeble, tired, weak, etc. Cf. run-down…

figurative. To weaken or destroy insidiously (esp. health, strength, courage, or the like).

transitive. To weaken physically, debilitate. Now rare.

In extended use. transitive. To reduce to extreme physical weakness or exhaustion, as by disease or fatigue. Frequently in passive.

To wreck (a person's constitution, nerves, etc.) by sickness, hardship, or the like. Also, to wreck the health, strength, or spirits of (a person).

To weaken or destroy (the health or constitution) by degrees; to sap.

transitive. Originally: †to make weak or feeble; to impair, to debilitate (cf. embezzle, v. 2) (obsolete). In later use: to diminish or impair the…

transitive. To deprive of vigour, to enervate: the opposite of invigorate.

transitive. To deprive of vitality or vital qualities; to render lifeless or effete.

To shatter (a person's health, constitution, or nerves) by sickness, hardship, or the like; to destroy the quality or tone of. Usually in passive.

transitive. To affect with atrophy, to starve.

figurative. To deprive of strength and energy.