as in cleaning
to remove dirty or dangerous substances (such as radioactive material) from (a person, thing, place, etc.)
Special workers were called in to decontaminate the area after the oil spill.
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Recent Examples of decontaminating
Among our responsibilities was decontaminating people and equipment after exposure to hazardous materials.
—
Jennifer N. Pritzker, Chicago Tribune, 22 Mar. 2026
Radiation protection personnel allegedly responded to the incident quickly, pulling the worker from the water and decontaminating him safely.
—Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2025
Jennifer N. Pritzker, Chicago Tribune, 22 Mar. 2026
Radiation protection personnel allegedly responded to the incident quickly, pulling the worker from the water and decontaminating him safely.
—Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for decontaminating
Verb
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Don’t forget your rugs, Ryan Knoll, owner of Tidy Casa, a home cleaning company that cleans over 600 homes a month.—
Alora Bopray,
USA Today,
4 Apr. 2026
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Three quick-connect spray tips offer a range of cleaning from precision to wide-area, an extra-large 22-ounce foam cannon for deep suds and 25 feet of hose with an additional 35 feet of cord for total reach.—
Tory Johnson,
ABC News,
3 Apr. 2026
Verb
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And even those veterans could be traded in this rebuilding climate, where the Dolphins are seemingly purging bloated salaries, and traded away players who have value — such as receiver Jaylen Waddle and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick - for draft picks.—
Omar Kelly,
Miami Herald,
31 Mar. 2026
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Order 1 dissolved the ruling Baath Party and removed all senior party members from their government positions, purging the administrative class that ran its ministries, hospitals and schools.—
Farah N. Jan,
The Conversation,
10 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The turmoil sweeping global markets has introduced a new layer of uncertainty, threatening to sap investor appetite that had just begun to recover, according to several industry practitioners.—
Anniek Bao,
CNBC,
27 Mar. 2026
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Georgia Republicans swiftly approved a sweeping elections overhaul Friday that would make most local races in five core metro Atlanta counties nonpartisan — a dramatic shift that could complicate Democratic efforts to hold onto power in the state’s most populous and most liberal region.—
Riley Bunch,
AJC.com,
27 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Decontaminating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/decontaminating. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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