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Glite Dictionary
🚦 To clear crowds 🤧 To clear blockage
to decongest

to decongest

4.0
To clear a blocked nose or chest so air moves more easily
  • verb
  • /ˌdiːkənˈdʒɛst/
translation icon : descongestionar
  • The nose was decongested with 1:1,000 epinephrine on cotton pledgets.
  • decongest the nose

Examples

  • Inhaling steam helps to decongest your sinuses, allowing you to breathe easier.

  • The nose is adequately decongested prior to intubation, and lubrication is applied to the tube.

    Academic text (2006)

  • So I sat in this weird like salt breath thing and it actually like kind of decongested some of my ear pain.

  • Using a saline spray can effectively decongest your nasal passages during a cold.

  • After taking the medication, I felt it decongest my blocked nose and ease my breathing.

Synonyms

to clear out
vsto decongest
2 4.6

Remove mucus from the chest or lungs by coughing

relieves blockages more generally rather than only by coughing out mucus

How Congested

to decongest
4.0
to unblock
3 3.1
to clear
∞ 1.5

Surface Forms

decongest infinitive
decongested past
decongested past participle
decongesting present participle
decongests third person singular

Morphology

decongest = congest (transparent) = de + congest

The medical sense still follows the regular logic of 'de-' plus 'congest', meaning to remove or reduce blockage.

Etymology

Decongest comes from de- 'remove' and congest 'crowd together', the same idea behind 'congestion' and 'congested traffic'. So to decongest your nose or chest is to 'clear the blocking' so you can breathe more easily.