debilitating

debilitating
adjective
de·;bil·;i·;tat·;ing di-;bi-l;-;t;-ti;  d;-
Synonyms of debilitating
: causing serious impairment of strength or ability to function
debilitating pain
a debilitating fear of public speaking
a debilitating illness
Thirty years have passed since a vaccine wiped out polio, but some of those who conquered the debilitating disease as children are now experiencing symptoms that seem all too familiar.
—Fay Knicely
Several of these drugs are now in clinical testing to determine whether they can reduce or eliminate the debilitating nausea suffered by cancer patients on chemotherapy.
—Ron Cowen
debilitatingly adverb
Debilitatingly asthmatic as a child, Scarfe developed his talent while amusing himself and acquired the cynicism for authority that empowers his … drawings and sculpture during many frightening encounters with medical incompetence.
—Ray Olson


Did you know?
Debilitating describes things that cause serious impairment of strength or ability to function. The word appears in both medical and general contexts; someone can suffer from debilitating nausea or debilitating stage fright. An adjective that takes the form of a verb, debilitating dates to the mid-17th century, making it the youngest of a trio: its source, the verb debilitate ("to impair the strength of"), dates to the early 16th century, and the noun debility ("weakness, infirmity") has been in use since the 15th century. All come from the Latin word for "weak," debilis. Polyglots may recognize the influence of debilis in words from Spanish, Russian, Czech, Turkish, Danish, and many other languages as well.

Examples of debilitating in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
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But unlike those diseases, there’s a fairly straightforward way to detect NPH and address some of its most debilitating symptoms.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 23 May 2025
The Heat has always found a way to avoid the repeater tax, which is a debilitating place to be in terms of roster construction because of the higher tax rate that comes with it.
—Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 8 May 2025
By their calculations, in that time frame, more than 170,000 people will be hospitalized, and nearly 900 will experience debilitating and potentially deadly neurological complications.
—Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2025
From overwhelming addiction in Requiem for a Dream to failing health in The Wrestler to the troubles of motherhood in Mother, his films force us to confront life’s most debilitating dilemmas.
—Travis Bean, Forbes.com, 18 Apr. 2025