stultifier


stul·ti·fy

S0825100 (stŭl′tə-fī′)tr.v. stul·ti·fied, stul·ti·fy·ing, stul·ti·fies 1. To cause to lose interest or feel dull and not alert: The audience was stultified by the speaker's unchanging monotone.2. To render useless or ineffectual: "[She believed] that the requirements of conventional academic life can stultify imagination, stifle enthusiasm and deaden prose style" (Robert K. Massie).3. To cause to appear stupid, inconsistent, or ridiculous: "Should he now stultify himself in all those quarrels by admitting he had been cruel, unjust, and needlessly jealous?" (Anthony Trollope).4. Law To claim incapacity as setting aside or preventing enforcement of (a deed or contract).
[Late Latin stultificāre, to make foolish : Latin stultus, foolish; see stel- in Indo-European roots + Latin -ficāre, -fy.]
stul′ti·fi·ca′tion (-fĭ-kā′shən) n.stul′ti·fi′er n.