enfeeble

Partisanship, the first president observed, “serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026

In a letter to Dr. Gabadadze and other deans, they wrote that they worried about setting “a precedent, completely lacking in due process, that could undermine faculty freedoms and correspondingly enfeeble proven pedagogic practices.”

From New York Times ● Oct. 3, 2022

How, in other words, fear and neglect, rather than the waywardness Vogel rails against, are what really enfeeble the mind.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2022

Abood held fast for several decades in the face of a well-funded movement to reverse the decision and enfeeble public sector unions.

From Slate ● Dec. 7, 2017

These vermin, when very numerous, greatly annoy and enfeeble the sheep in winter, and should be kept entirely out of the flock.

From Sheep, Swine, and Poultry Embracing the History and Varieties of Each; The Best Modes of Breeding; Their Feeding and Management; Together with etc. by Robert Jennings

But knowing the hallmarks of classic style will make anyone a better writer, and it is the strongest cure I know for the disease that enfeebles academic, bureaucratic, corporate, legal, and official prose.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

The pressure of tight dresses, under the name of a “snug fit,” enfeebles the muscles of the back, and is a common cause of projecting shoulders and curvature of the spinal column.

From A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) by Calvin Cutter

The long-continued tension of a muscle enfeebles its action, and eventually destroys its contractility.

From A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) by Calvin Cutter

A doubting conscience enfeebles a man’s spiritual vigour for work.

From The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews by Thomas Charles Edwards

Everything that clogs, impedes, or retards life we hate; sickness, imprisonment, death, whatever diminishes, enfeebles, limits, or destroys life, we abhor.

From The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St John, Vol. II by Marcus Dods

The former Red Army is in an enfeebled state.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025

She engenders compassion as Elisabeth grapples with her aging body, and a scene where she is enfeebled and struggles to get out of a chair is both achingly painful and achingly funny.

From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2024

Added to this, Congress, which governed India for decades, looks enfeebled and in decline.

From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2024

The attacks by the Mossi and Tuareg squeezed the enfeebled Malian Empire from the north and east.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

Capitalizing on Mantell’s enfeebled state, Owen set about systematically expunging Mantell’s contributions from the record, renaming species that Mantell had named years before and claiming credit for their discovery for himself.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

His balding head’s scraggly hair—in contrast to the wigs worn by just about every Frenchman at the time, no matter the social class—is both ennobling and a bit enfeebling, like an aging but distinguished mane.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

They fear that the enfeebling of the judiciary will compromise the rule of law and make the economy unattractive for investment.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023

It’s an image that evokes an enfeebling combination of envy and rage, as it becomes increasingly clear that the botters are perpetually one step ahead of our mere keyboards and mouses.

From The Verge ● May 25, 2022

These are things the Europeans agree need to be addressed, but not by enfeebling the nuclear deal which, they say, is crucial to their security.

From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2018

But now they are weary and faint, like those of some sickly dweller in cities--of some slave of effeminate and enfeebling luxury.

From The Gipsy (Vols I & II) A Tale by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James