enervate

• POS: Adjective, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: en=er=vate

CIDE DICTIONARY

enervate, v. t. [L. enervatus, p. p. of enervare, fr. enervis nerveless, weak; e out + nervus nerve. See Nerve.].

 To deprive of nerve, force, strength, or courage; to render feeble or impotent; to make effeminate; to impair the moral powers of.  [1913 Webster]
"A man . . . enervated by licentiousness."  [1913 Webster]
"And rhyme began t' enervate poetry."

Syn. -- To weaken; enfeeble; unnerve; debilitate.

enervate, a. [L. enervatus, p. p.].

 Weakened; weak; without strength of force.  Pope.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

enervate, v. & adj.
--v.tr. deprive of vigour or vitality.
--adj. enervated.

Derivative

enervation n.

Etymology

L enervatus past part. of enervare (as E-, nervus sinew)

THESAURUS

enervate

abate, afflict, attenuate, beat, blunt, break, burn out, castrate, cramp, cripple, damp, dampen, deaden, debilitate, defeat, demasculinize, dematerialize, derange, desex, desexualize, devitalize, disable, disembody, disorder, do in, do up, drain, dull, effeminize, emasculate, enfeeble, etherealize, etiolate, eviscerate, exhaust, extenuate, fag, fag out, fatigue, flag, frazzle, gruel, harass, hospitalize, incapacitate, indispose, invalid, jade, knock out, knock up, lay low, lay up, mitigate, overfatigue, overstrain, overtire, overweary, poop, poop out, prostrate, rarefy, rattle, reduce, sap, shake, shake up, sicken, soften up, spiritualize, sterilize, strain, subtilize, tire, tire out, tire to death, tucker, unbrace, undermine, unman, unnerve, unstrengthen, unstring, use up, weaken, wear, wear down, wear on, wear out, weary, wilt, wind

ROGET THESAURUS

enervate

Impotence

VB be impotent, not have a leg to stand on, vouloir rompre l'anguille au genou, vouloir prendre la lune avec les dents, collapse, faint, swoon, fall into a swoon, drop, go by the board, go by the wayside, go up in smoke, end in smoke, render powerless, deprive of power, disable, disenable, disarm, incapacitate, disqualify, unfit, invalidate, deaden, cramp, tie the hands, double up, prostrate, paralyze, muzzle, cripple, becripple, maim, lame, hamstring, draw the teeth of, throttle, strangle, garrotte, garrote, ratten, silence, sprain, clip the wings of, put hors de combat, spike the guns, take the wind out of one's sails, scotch the snake, put a spoke in one's wheel, break the neck, break the back, unhinge, unfit, put out of gear, unman, unnerve, enervate, emasculate, castrate, geld, alter, neuter, sterilize, fix, shatter, exhaust, weaken.

Weakness

VB be weak, drop, crumble, give way, totter, tremble, shake, halt, limp, fade, languish, decline, flag, fail, have one leg in the grave, render weak, weaken, enfeeble, debilitate, shake, deprive of strength, relax, enervate, eviscerate, unbrace, unnerve, cripple, unman, cramp, reduce, sprain, strain, blunt the edge of, dilute, impoverish, decimate, extenuate, reduce in strength, reduce the strength of, mettre de l'eau dans son vin.