inactivate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to make inactive.
The bomb was inactivated.
-
Immunology. to stop the activity of (certain biological substances).
verb
Other Word Forms
- inactivation noun
Etymology
Origin of inactivate
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I also want to just stress that there’s nothing, there’s no cooking of the mushroom or freezing of the mushroom that would inactivate the toxin,” Smollin said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 16, 2026
“The decision to inactivate comes after concerns about clinical processes and documentation were identified,” the hospital said in a statement.
From New York Times • Apr. 29, 2024
By engineering the mouse embryo to kill or inactivate its own olfactory neurons, the researchers could easily determine if rat neurons had restored the animals' sense of smell.
From Science Daily • Apr. 25, 2024
Still, he wonders whether the commonly used “high temperature, short time” pasteurization, which heats milk to about 72°C for 15 or 20 seconds, is enough to inactivate all the virus in a sample.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 22, 2024
Extracts in which no attempt was made to inactivate the enzymes present proved unsatisfactory.
From Myology and Serology of the Avian Family Fringillidae A Taxonomic Study by Stallcup, William B.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
