weaken

Pulse: In 2016, the year a security guard killed 49 people at Orlando’s Pulse night club, 10 states passed laws to weaken restrictions on firearms, according to the Giffords Law Center.

— rachel swan, SFChronicle.com, "California the exception as nation’s gun laws loosen after ’93 SF rampage," 1 July 2018
That’s because Kennedy’s swing vote paved the way for two major Obama-era regulations that Pruitt is now trying to weaken: The Clean Power Plan and the Waters of the United States rule.

— emily atkin, The New Republic, "‘There’s No Happier Person in America Right Now Than Scott Pruitt’," 29 June 2018
Other educators, however, worry that the decision could weaken the financial base of unions.

— chicagotribune.com, "Unions brace for loss of members and fees in wake of Supreme Court ruling," 28 June 2018
The changes include giving the executive and legislative branches greater control of the judiciary, which opponents say could weaken the democratic system of checks and balances.

— BostonGlobe.com, "EU panel question if Poland’s overhaul of justice system violates democratic standards," 26 June 2018
Finally, 10 years on, in 1973, his attorneys decided that the passage of time had significantly weakened the state’s ability to make its case.

— Longreads, "The Bungled Bank Robbery That Ended in a Landmark Legal Ruling," 26 June 2018
That deadline, of midnight Tuesday, was set amid accusations that the reforms weaken democracy.

— staff report, Houston Chronicle, "Protest deadline is May 15 for property in Harris County," 24 Apr. 2018
Others, including Executive Director Tom Albritton of the Alabama Ethics Commission, have expressed concern that such an exemption would weaken the ethics law.

— leada gore, AL.com, "Walmart pulls Cosmopolitan magazine from checkout lines," 27 Mar. 2018
Local officials say the state's industry-friendly approach has weakened efforts by the city of Houston and surrounding Harris County to build cases against and force cleanup by the companies, many of them repeat environmental offenders.

— CBS News, "Hurricane Harvey's toxic impact deeper than public told," 22 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'weaken.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of weaken

1530

in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

See Words from the same year

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weaken Synonyms

Synonym Discussion of weaken

weaken, enfeeble, debilitate, undermine, sap, cripple, disable mean to lose or cause to lose strength or vigor. weaken may imply loss of physical strength, health, soundness, or stability or of quality, intensity, or effective power.