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enervate

UK/ˌɛn.ə(ɹ)ˈveɪt/US/ˌɛn.ə(ɹ)ˈveɪt/
verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechformal · an editor’s judgementToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: enervating, enervated

To enervate somebody is to drain them of energy. Not tired from effort — emptied.

Heat, illness and long meetings all enervate. The word is formal and is nearly always passive or adjectival, so an enervating afternoon is one that leaves everybody limp. The trap here is real, since enervate looks as though it should mean to energise and means precisely the opposite, and it is one of the words most often used backwards. Invigorate is what people usually intend when they get it wrong.

Definitions of enervate

  1. 1verbenervateTo drain somebody of energy and vitality.C2

    “The heat will enervate anybody working outside.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    enervatus

  2. English, today

    enervate

Built from

  • enervo · Latin — to weaken

From Latin enervatus, past participle of enervo (“to weaken”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 17 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word