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

The paradox is that trauma’s lingering impacts can enfeeble human connection, weakening even the strongest of social bonds.

From New York Times ● Jul. 5, 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

It will forever be the least dangerous branch, but that is no reason to enfeeble it further.

From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2018

It serves always," he tells them, "to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration.

From Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume II (of 2) Including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess Charlotte by Lady Anne Hamilton

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

They tell us now that all is good; that evil is but blessing in disguise, that pain makes strong and virtuous men—makes character—while pleasure enfeebles and degrades.

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 4 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Lectures by Robert Green Ingersoll

It impairs the functions of the brain, clouds the understanding, and enfeebles the memory.”—Dr.

From The Gospel Day Or, the Light of Christianity by Charles Ebert Orr

Habitual inaction enfeebles the faculties, and renders their occasional operation inefficient and fruitless.

From Old Wine and New Occasional Discourses by Joseph Cross

It is rather red tape, and not the occasional snapping of red tape which enfeebles liberty.

From Body, Parentage and Character in History Notes on the Tudor Period by Furneaux Jordan

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 empire carried on in an enfeebled state, but over the ensuing decades, Chang’an ceded much military and civil authority to provincial warlords.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023

The tree was not only stripped by the cold season, it seemed weary from age, enfeebled, dry.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

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

In thy satire was no gall, in the sting of thy winged wit no venom, in the pathos of thy sorrow no enfeebling touch!

From Life Without and Life Within or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and poems. by Margaret Fuller