diffuse

An attempt to detonate or diffuse the bomb failed, so Officer Brian Murray and three others were lowered into the crater.

From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026

Security guards and family members quickly intervened to diffuse the situation.

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026

Service providers will face more stress and “outreach teams will become less efficient as clients become more geographically diffuse and harder to find,” it said.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026

Evolutions in technology and the way wars are fought -- notably with drones -- are also making the global arms market more diffuse, which could benefit Japan, according to analysts at the Stimson Center.

From Barron's ● May 3, 2026

Late afternoon, the sky hazy, the sunlight diffuse but heavy and everywhere, like bronze dust.

From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

“Staying in the boat diffuses the anger in the room,” she says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 27, 2025

They’re also less likely to be cultivated in complete monocultures than oil palms, which diffuses their impact on surrounding ecosystems.

From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2024

Dunst diffuses the moment by adopting an exaggerated Valley girl sing-song, “I basically fell in love with Cailee and I was like, ‘She’s the best, you need to work with her.’”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2024

It borrows an idea from physics that can be used to describe, for instance, how gas diffuses outward.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2024

The square of sunshine moves, diffuses, grows faint yellow.

From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

On “Quotidien,” the audience is seated in a circle around the stars, which calls for the studio lights to be spread out around them, creating a softer, more diffused effect.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 22, 2026

Xu and team argue that any systems breakthrough or efficiency gains are diffused quickly across the ecosystem.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 16, 2026

The heated confrontation between the defensive duo was sparked by the concession of a late goal and diffused by the Gunners' backroom staff.

From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2025

“He’s sort of like a mini-bulldog out there,” Roberts said, noting how — like Hershiser — Stone only seemed to seek strikeouts when runners were on base, or a jam needed to be diffused.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2024

But because the light travels such a long distance, the magic in it is fragile and diffused, stretched into the most delicate of threads.

From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill

To oversee this more complex economy, reformers turned to specialized bodies of experts and—echoing the founders’ instinct for diffusing power—insulated them from politics.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026

Diplomatic talks, mediated by Oman, were aimed at diffusing tensions between Washington and Tehran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026

Every time you say, “Let them,” even if it’s after the outburst, you’re still diffusing the emotion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2025

With that key narrative element out in the open, the movie’s beats are all too easy to predict, diffusing what little humor there was left to garner from its meager amount of twists.

From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2025

She should be diffusing and scrunching and, if possible, sleeping on a satin pillowcase.

From "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell