paralyze
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to affect with paralysis.
-
to bring to a condition of helpless stoppage, inactivity, or inability to act.
The strike paralyzed communications.
Related Words
See shock 1.
Other Word Forms
- paralyzant adjective
- paralyzation noun
- paralyzer noun
- paralyzingly adverb
- semiparalyzed adjective
- unparalyzed adjective
Etymology
Origin of paralyze
First recorded in 1795–1805; back formation from paralysis, modeled on analyze
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Confined for her safety in a small, interior room, Maggie had been sobbing for days, “sick and nearly paralyzed with fright.”
From Literature
In the late 1990s, neurologist Philip Kennedy developed the first BCI to allow a severely paralyzed patient to move a computer cursor using their brain.
From MarketWatch
I had a catastrophic fall at home, which left me paralyzed from the shoulders down.
Usually when I got scared I could almost outrun my shadow, but I was beyond being scared, I was paralyzed.
From Literature
I worry regulators within those agencies have forgotten the lessons we learned in 2008 and the panic that paralyzed the world at the time.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
