defuse

• defuze

From de- + fuse.

• IPA^(key): /diːˈfjuːz/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːz

defuse (third-person singular simple present defuses, present participle defusing, simple past and past participle defused)

1. (transitive) To remove the fuse from (e.g. a bomb).
   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria:

     Shepard: I wear a lot of hats, Mr. Vargas. Some days I shut down criminals. Some days I defuse nukes. Some days I like to enjoy private vices. You understand me?

2. (transitive, figurative) To make less dangerous, tense, or hostile.

   Synonym: de-escalate

   The diplomats are trying to defuse the escalating crisis.

   to defuse a hostage situation

   • 2008 April 4, Michael Moss, “Rising Leader for Next Phase of Al Qaeda’s War”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     In recent months, those tactics have come to include defensive maneuvers aimed at defusing the media counteroperations of the United States and its allies.

   • 2010, Edwin M. Truman, Sovereign Wealth Funds: Threat Or Salvation?, →ISBN, page 8:

     As a result of the Santiago Principles and other parallel efforts at education such as the SWF scoreboard that I have featured in my research, a substantial amount of distrust surrounding SWFs has been defused.

   • 2013 June 18, Simon Romero, “Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders”, in New York Times, retrieved 21 June 2013:

     Shaken by the biggest challenge to their authority in years, Brazil’s leaders made conciliatory gestures on Tuesday to try to defuse the protests engulfing the nation’s cities.

   • 2020, Alex Stitt, ACT for Gender Identity: The Comprehensive Guide‎^[2], page 202:

     Defying this, Western queer culture actively defuses from cisnormative values, yet in so doing may also fuse with their new, queernormative value constructs.

• May be confused with diffuse (“to spread through fluid”), especially the figurative sense.

• defusion
• defusive
• defuze

Compare diffuse.

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈfjuːz/
• Rhymes: -uːz
• Homophones: diffuse

defuse (third-person singular simple present defuses, present participle defusing, simple past and past participle defused)

1. (obsolete) To disorder; to make shapeless.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], line 2:

     If but as well I other accents borrow / That can my speech defuse,