Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌫️ To remove color ⚗️ To remove hydrogen 🫁 To lose oxygen
to desaturate

to desaturate

1 7.4
To make the oxygen level in the blood fall
  • verb
  • /ˌdiːˈsætʃʊˌreɪt/
  • Specialized
: desaturar
  • The doctor noticed that the patient was desaturating and quickly adjusted the oxygen levels.

Examples

  • During the flight, we experienced a drop in cabin pressure, causing some passengers to desaturate and feel lightheaded.

  • If you exercise too hard, your blood may start to desaturate due to insufficient oxygen.

  • d. meperidine (Demerol) 14. For a child on opioids via PCA who is alert but is desaturating, the recommended intervention is to

    Academic text (2003)

Synonyms

to deoxygenate
vsto desaturate
  • Specialized
1 8.1

To remove oxygen from a liquid like water or blood

reduces oxygen level without fully removing it

Antonyms

to saturate
8 5.2

Make something so full of liquid or color that it can take no more

How Oxygenated

to oxygenate
  • Specialized
10 5.8
to desaturate
  • Specialized
1 7.4
to deoxygenate
  • Specialized
1 8.1

Surface Forms

desaturate infinitive
desaturated past
desaturated past participle
desaturating present participle
desaturates third person singular

Morphology

desaturate = saturate (semi-transparent) = de + saturate

Morphologically clear (de- + saturate) but the application to blood oxygen is domain-specific medical usage that an average learner may not infer from the base word alone.

Etymology

Desaturate comes from de- 'remove' and saturate 'fill full', and this idea also applies to oxygen in the blood. When a patient begins to desaturate, their blood is losing its 'fullness' of oxygen, so the oxygen level goes down.