Other forms: paralyzed, paralyzing, paralyzes
To paralyze is to take away the power to move. A nerve injury, a drug, or sheer fear.
The medical sense is precise and permanent or temporary depending on the cause, and paralysis is the noun. The figurative sense is very common, since a strike can paralyze a city and indecision can paralyze a person, and both mean nothing can move. American English spells it with a z and British English with an s. Paralyzed with fear is close to a fixed phrase, and it describes a real physiological response.
1verbparalyzeTo make someone unable to move.
“The injury paralyzed him from the waist down.”
2verbbringTo bring an activity to a complete stop.
“The strike paralyzed the whole network.”
Also accepted in games: paralyse
French
paralyser
Middle English
paralysie
English, today
paralyze
Partly a borrowing from French. Probably partly either (i) formed within English, by derivation. Or partly (ii) a borrowing from French, combined with an English element. Etymons: Middle English paralysie, -ize suffix; French paralyser.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 34 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word