Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🏥 To treat addiction 🧪 To remove toxins
to detoxify

to detoxify

3 5.3
To help a person remove alcohol or drugs from their body in a medical setting
  • verb
  • /diˈtɑːk.sɪ.faɪ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : desintoxicar
  • Tomorrow afternoon, a doctor's going to come by and check you out to see if you've been detoxified.
  • detoxify the body
  • detoxify the liver
  • help detoxify

Examples

  • And what happened, which is typical is he would quit, he would detoxify himself, right?

  • GSH, a main antioxidant in the body, helps the body detoxify itself.

    Blog text (14)

  • I can feel my body detoxifying.

    Vacation (2015)

  • It really helps when someone is ill and needs to detoxify.

    Blog text (15)

  • They're great at detoxifying you if you feed them right your liver.

  • "Following the child's removal, Dorothy detoxified and got some help for her addiction."

    Academic text (2000)

  • The new doctors decided that they should stop giving the guy any medications at all, give his body a while to detoxify (watching over him very carefully all the while), then assess his problems and begin treating those that seemed to need to be treated.

    Blog text (2)

  • Lemons that sour flavor helps nourish the liver, helps cleanse and detoxify the entire body.

  • In our search to revalue our bodies, we must discover ways to detoxify ourselves to find our personal antidotes to advertising's lure to be something different from what we are.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Many rehabilitation programs focus on how to detoxify patients struggling with addiction.

Synonyms

to purge
vsto detoxify
  • Archaic
14 7.9

To make someone vomit or empty their stomach to remove harmful substances

uses broader treatment approaches rather than forcing expulsion as the main method
to detox
vsto detoxify
  • Specialized
11 5.5

To stop using drugs or alcohol while receiving medical help

focuses on treating someone rather than being both giver and receiver
to decontaminate
vsto detoxify
  • Specialized
9 7.0

To remove harmful substances from a place or thing to make it safe

concerns medical removal from bodies and treating dependence rather than cleaning places
to decon
vsto detoxify
  • Jargon
1 8.4

To remove dangerous substances from people, equipment, or areas

is focused on treating people to remove body toxins not cleaning objects or places
to clean one's system
vsto detoxify
5.1

To remove harmful things from the body or a computer

involves formal treatment focused on dependence rather than casual removal
to flush out toxins
vsto detoxify
4.4

Remove harmful substances from the body by drinking more water or sweating

uses medical treatment for dependence rather than simple fluid-based removal
to denarcotize
vsto detoxify
  • NSFW
9.9

To help a person stop needing strong pain drugs

covers treating dependence or toxic substance removal beyond only narcotics
to detoxicate
vsto detoxify
7.5

Take harmful substances out of something to make it safe

applies medical treatment to people rather than cleaning objects or places

Antonyms

to toxify
1 8.2

To make something poisonous by adding harmful things

How Detoxified

to detoxify
  • Specialized
3 5.3
to purge
49 6.3
cleanse
  • Texting
91 4.8
to sober up
33 4.6

Surface Forms

detoxify infinitive
detoxified past
detoxified past participle
detoxifying present participle
detoxifies third person singular

Morphology

detoxify = toxify (semi-transparent) = de + tox + ify

The reversal meaning is clear from de- plus 'toxify', but the specific sense of clinical treatment for alcohol or drug dependence is more specialized than the basic morphology alone predicts.

Etymology

Detoxify breaks into parts: de- meaning 'remove', tox meaning 'poison', as in toxin or toxic, and -ify meaning 'make'. So, to detoxify a person is to 'remove poison' or harmful substances from their body, which is why it means treating someone to stop the effects of drugs or alcohol.