Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Debilitate \De*bil"i*tate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Debilitated; p. pr. & vb. n. Debilitating.] [L. debilitatus, p. p. of debilitare to debilitate, fr. debilis. See Debility.] To impair the strength of; to weaken; to enfeeble; as, to debilitate the body by intemperance.
Various ails debilitate the mind.
--Jenyns.
The debilitated frame of Mr. Bertram was exhausted by
this last effort.
--Sir W.
Scott.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1530s, from Latin debilitatus, past participle of debilitare "to weaken," from debilis "weak" (see debility). Related: Debilitated; debilitating.
Wiktionary
vb. To make feeble; to weaken.
WordNet
Usage examples of "debilitate".
Now, in the case of a debilitated female patient, a physician naturally thinks first of chlorosis or the fluor albus or some other such adust ion of the womb.
He knew for what purpose his guest had come, and was ashamed to appear before him pale and debilitated.
Even the use of a temporarily debilitating narcotic drug could be interpreted by the Cetacea as the use of violence.
Hundreds died within a few days, and hundreds more were so debilitated by the terrible strain that they did not linger long afterward.
Let him conceive of ten thousand feeble men, debilitated by months of imprisonment, turned inside this inclosure, without a yard of covering given them, and told to make their homes there.
I think he wanted Dinai and Seum debilitated by their treatment, so he could more easily wring confessions out of them.
I should have fought harder, but I was too physically weak and mentally debilitated to care anymore.
Before it could reactindeed, if it could have effectively reacted at all in its debilitated statethe banestone struck it square on the forehead.
It is then necessary that all of the vital energies should be employed in effecting a recovery from disease, without having the additional tax imposed of overcoming the debilitating effects of sexual expenditure.
Anything which debilitates the system, or diminishes its powers of evolving animal heat and withstanding cold or sudden changes of atmospheric temperature, and other disease-producing agencies, renders the individual thus enfeebled very liable to catarrh.
The general health is seriously impaired, and the patient becomes debilitated, anaemic, and hectic.
Likewise, our highly esteemed Bruno Kronk not only gives the most strenuous and most exquisitely debilitating massages on the North American continent, but he also is to robotic-monkey repair what Jackie Chan is to martial-arts movies.
Its dark, humped form was slumped over, looking like a shaggy, debilitated volcano.
The man had porphyria, a most debilitating affliction that ultimately ruined his health and rendered him mad as a hatter.
After landing, the two accomplished their postflight inspection of the debilitated aircraft.