Definition of paralyze
paralyzed
;paralyzing
transitive verb
1 : to affect with paralysis The snake's venom paralyzed the mouse.
2 : to make powerless or ineffective A strike would paralyze the industry.
3 : unnerve the parlyzing thing is the uncertainty — Evelyn Whitehead
4 : stun, stupefy She sat paralyzed when she heard the news.
5 : to bring to an end : prevent, destroy deadlock paralyzed action — F. A. Ogg & Harold Zink
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Examples of paralyze in a Sentence
The snake's venom paralyzed the mouse.
The air strikes have paralyzed the city's transportation system.
The company was paralyzed by debt.
Recent Examples of paralyze from the Web
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The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down.
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A fundraiser to support Chelsea Black, a Rolling Meadows High School graduate paralyzed from the chest down after a drive-by shooting last November, will be held June 11 at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights.
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The proceeds of the benefit will go toward caring for Jake Thomas, Dave Thomas' nephew, who suffered a spinal cord injury while snowmobiling in Jan. 2017 that has left him paralyzed from the waist down.
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Both issues threaten to paralyze a Congress where consensus is already weak and mid-term elections next year loom large.
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Nine years ago, Ashley Boyer was a recent Liberty High School graduate who woke up in an intensive care unit paralyzed from the waist up and unable to speak after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke.
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The incident left her paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, rendering her voice whisper-like.
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Rebecca Taylor tailors shopping just for you New York designer Rebecca Taylor understands the challenges of shopping: limited time to browse in stores or the paralyzing confusion of going online.
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The reason is that all the cores must use a single data bus and a single address bus to access a single piece of data at a time and this creates a paralyzing bottleneck. …
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'paralyze'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of paralyze
French paralyser, back-formation from paralysie paralysis, from Latin paralysis
PARALYZE Defined for English Language Learners
paralyze
playDefinition of paralyze for English Language Learners
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: to make (a person or animal) unable to move or feel all or part of the body
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: to make (someone or something) unable to function, act, or move
PARALYZE Defined for Kids
paralyze
playDefinition of paralyze for Students
paralyzed
;paralyzing
1 : to cause to be unable to move all or part of the body The snake's venom paralyzed the mouse.
2 : to destroy or decrease something's energy or ability to act The city was paralyzed by a heavy snowstorm.
Medical Dictionary
Learn More about paralyze
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for paralyze Spanish Central: Translation of paralyze Nglish: Translation of paralyze for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of paralyze for Arabic speakers
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