diffuse

This pattern was the reverse of changes commonly associated with aging, when neural tracts tend to become more diffuse.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026

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

Its benefits—cognitive diversity, locally fitted rules, parallel experimentation, choice among competing jurisdictions, and interpretations truer to what Congress enacted—are diffuse and hard to measure.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026

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

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026

A fiery outline of twilight shone around her silhouette, burned red-gold in her hair, grew diffuse in the fuzzy texture of the woolen skirt pulled carelessly about her knees.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

The glass is screened by adjustable curtains of a high-tech fabric that diffuses and softens the sunlight, making it ideal for viewing the three-dimensional art displayed there.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

The physical act of twirling noodles while discussing something as monumental as coming out diffuses the tension just enough for honesty to survive.

From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2026

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

I block the scene so when we kiss, faces around us blur, a filtered lens diffuses the light, and a smoke machine blows gauzy wisps of gray across the floor.

From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed

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

“Oprah’s Favorite Things was a phenomenon because of how trusted Oprah was, so it really is that same phenomenon, just diffused across the creator ecosystem.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2025

Draper quickly diffused what could have been a tricky encounter, showing his superior quality and experience from the start.

From BBC ● May 31, 2025

The light threw a circle on the reading table and only diffused dimly through the gray room.

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

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

Participants will be working on shared language for annexes covering child protection, AI security and governance and diffusing AI through economies -- especially to small and medium firms.

From Barron's ● May 29, 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

Inside the jail, Ben and Sammy could hear the semisweet, candently primitive rhythms of jukebox blues diffusing out of unseen nightclubs.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy