defuse

UK/diːˈfjuːz/US/diːˈfjuːz/

verbB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,261 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: defused, defusing, defuses

To defuse is to make a bomb safe, or to calm a tense situation. Defuse the row.

It is spelt with one f, unlike diffuse, which means to spread out. To defuse a situation usually means changing the subject rather than settling it.

Definitions of defuse

1verbdefuseTo make a bomb safe, or to calm a tense situation.B2+
“One joke was enough to defuse the whole meeting.”

defuse is a making safe.

Where it comes from

De- meaning removal plus fuse, since the fuse is what is taken out.

Latin
fūsus — spindle
French
fusée
Italian
fuso
English
fuse
English, today
defuse

From de- + fuse. fuse comes from Italian fuso and French fusée, from Latin fūsus (“spindle”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

defuse in the wild

In 886, he sought to defuse domestic discontent with a decree of general forgiveness.
Heongang of Silla
However, despite the team success, the players refused to play until future president Josep Sunyol was able to defuse the situation.
Tomàs Rosés
Davison won as his team-mate Winterbottom snuck past Whincup on the last lap to defuse the hostile challenge from the Holden driver.
2012 Trading Post Perth Challenge
After Leigh Conroy returns to join the cast of Bombshell, Tom finds himself struggling to defuse the long-standing tension between her and her daughter, Ivy.
The Parents
An adaptation of an Israeli series with the same title, Boom! is a general-knowledge quiz show where three players must correctly answer questions in order to defuse bombs.
Boom! (American game show)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the fuso family

fuse defuse

defuse — used about once every 4,394 pages · #9,261 · point at the bar for the others

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