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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
defuse
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
defuse a crisis (=stop it developing further)
▪ Diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis have failed.
defuse tension (=make a situation more friendly)
▪ He searched for ways of defusing racial tension.
defuse the situation (=make people less angry)
▪ She’d just been trying to calm Gerry down and defuse the situation.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
attempt
▪ Threats of a Lords revolt remain, with Mr Patten's attempts to defuse the row having failed.
bomb
▪ Police evacuated nearby buildings and cordoned off the area while they defused the bomb.
▪ Some economists say that declining population growth rates have defused the population bomb.
crisis
▪ With an uneasy peace prevailing along the border the international community launched a series of missions to defuse the crisis.
▪ Mr Assad defused that crisis by stripping Rifat of power, but Alawite rivalries remain keen.
▪ Havel asked the legislature to grant him broader powers to defuse the constitutional crisis.
▪ Diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis have been equally chaotic.
row
▪ Threats of a Lords revolt remain, with Mr Patten's attempts to defuse the row having failed.
situation
▪ Negotiation could sometimes defuse these situations and produce more acceptable consequences for both parties.
▪ I was trying to defuse a volatile situation.
▪ An argument broke out in the crowded pub after some drink was knocked over and Mr Brown tried to defuse the situation.
▪ Despite Fiat's efforts to defuse the situation by adopting an ethics code, its problems are not over yet.
▪ Or do they bide their time and seek to defuse the situation by negotiations via a mediator?
▪ The only thing she'd been trying to do was calm Guido down and defuse the situation.
▪ He reckons that defuses the situation.
tension
▪ This should not defuse the dramatic tension.
▪ Maybe the fraught confrontation earlier had defused some of the tension building up between them.
▪ Talks between representatives of the three communities appeared to defuse some of the tension.
▪ They know how helpful tears are to defuse tension and how constructive their aftermath can be.
▪ It, too, has been trying to defuse tensions.
▪ You can always bank on Ally McCoist to defuse the tension.
■ VERB
try
▪ An argument broke out in the crowded pub after some drink was knocked over and Mr Brown tried to defuse the situation.
▪ I was trying to defuse a volatile situation.
▪ There were also obvious international reasons to try to defuse crises before they developed.
▪ And she has tried to defuse the threat which science undoubtedly can pose against creative writing.
▪ Mr and Mrs Jones try very hard to defuse difficult situations.
▪ It, too, has been trying to defuse tensions.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Diplomats are trying to defuse the situation.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Another writer defused my initial fears of motherhood by telling me that she worked more efficiently after her child was born.
▪ I was trying to defuse a volatile situation.
▪ Negotiation could sometimes defuse these situations and produce more acceptable consequences for both parties.
▪ Police found and defused a number of limpet mines.
▪ The others were found and defused just in time.
▪ This should not defuse the dramatic tension.
▪ Worse yet, it may resort to additional expedient action to disguise or defuse the consequences of previous counterproductive actions.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
defuse

defuse \de*fuse"\ (d[-e]*f[=u]z"), v. t. [Cf. Diffuse.]

  1. To disorder; to make shapeless. [Obs.]
    --Shak.

  2. To remove the fuse from; to deactivate (a bomb or other explosive device) or make it ineffective.

    Syn: deactivate.

  3. To make less dangerous; as, to defuse a tense confrontation between demonstrators and police.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
defuse

1943, from de- + fuse. Related: Defused; defusing.

Wiktionary
defuse

Etymology 1 vb. 1 To remove the fuse from (a bomb, etc.). 2 To make less dangerous, tense, or hostile. Etymology 2

vb. (context obsolete English) To disorder; to make shapeless.

WordNet
defuse

v. remove the triggering device from [ant: fuse]

Usage examples of "defuse".

More important, however, is that the transfer would improve commerce between the Belt and the Triplanetary population, defusing the more volatile Belter Autarchists, who view trade with Triplanetary as both expensive and pointless.

If he had been established in China, as he hoped to be in a decade, he would have fought with every bit of leverage and lies at his command to defuse the growing crisis, as Chinas other trading partners were no doubt doing, including the United States.

But the second and third would not: the second would explode if the monofilament trigger were cut, so any officer attempting to defuse the device would be killed or dismembered.

While normally the ship was Defused from the bridge by running a finger down the Fusion control console, ignition was trickier.

Her target defused its mass in sections, permitting the apples to pass through.

He was such easy company, and defused so many situations for them both.

It not only flattened the Kosmos to a one-dimensional, monological affair, it sealed out the possibility of deeper and wider developments that alone could defuse its own insoluble dilemmas.

And this kind of unshakable stupidity was essential when it came to sending someone to defuse the offworlders at police conferences.

Like all impulses, it comes in varying degrees, and even a towering rage can be deflated until it defuses into controlled rage, then justified anger, and on down to righteous indignation, and finally personal offense.

When you begin by humbly admitting your mistakes, it defuses the other person's anger and disarms their attack because they were probably expecting you to be defensive.

The Bible says, "A gentle response defuses anger, but a sharp tongue kindles a temper fire.

We have found that assigning them to the poetry enclaves defuses their dangerous criminal traits that threaten the order of our society.

But it also evades -- or defuses -- the relentless erotic pulse of mutant dance forms like disco, techno, and rave.

Which McCain, incredibly, sees the man's humanity, the seriousness of these issues to himand says yes, he will, he'll promise to look into it, and yes he'll put this promise in writing, although he ``believe[s] [they] have a difference of opinion about this mind-control machine,'' and in short defuses the insane man and treats him respectfully without patronizing him or pretending to be schizophrenic too, and does it all so quickly and gracefully and with such basic decency that if it was some sort of act then McCain is the devil himself.

They'll need every second to work on the defusing, so the last thing we need is this woman holding the bomb hostage while she makes threats to explode it, if that's what she's intending to do.