to stultify

Examples

• All

• When faced with endless bureaucracy, her innovative ideas were stultified by the system.

• The genius of the people is stultified.

  Academic text (2000)

• This lack of any generosity whatsoever toward one's perceived (or invented) opposition increasingly stultifies writing in this area.

  Academic text (1995)

• Thousands today close all argument by saying, "This is the first meaning, spelling, or pronunciation given in Webster"; and all teachers daily stultify study by saying, "Look it up in the dictionary."

  Academic text (1995)

• Dilbert is popular not just for the laughs, but because it so effectively captures the stultifying nature of today's corporate workplaces.

  Blog text (13)

• But still, Alissa keeps putting Jérôme off, and, with time, she gradually turns herself into a sort of lay nun, devoted to stultifying good works.

  Academic text (1990)

• His prodigious court vision and playmaking leave him uniquely suited to carry on the tradition of great point guard play in Phoenix, dependent upon him stultifying his critics by ameliorating the deficiencies in his game.

  Blog text (26)

• The first important shift in Swedish art education took place in 1911, when seminar lecturer Axel Goes abandoned the stultifying drill using lines, dots, and squares that had been developed by Adolf Stuhlmann in Germany.

  Academic text (1997)

• The strict rules at the club stultified any attempt to express creativity.

• His constant criticism stultified her confidence in her abilities.

Synonyms

H

to humiliate

vsto stultify

• Offensive

414 6.1

Make someone feel very ashamed and foolish, often in front of others

is about making someone appear foolish rather than causing private shame

M

to make a monkey out of

vsto stultify

• Offensive

3 8.4

Make someone look silly in front of other people by tricking or embarrassing them

is more formal and stresses appearing absurd or incompetent

B

to beclown

vsto stultify

• Literature

9.9

To make someone look foolish by doing or saying silly things

is broader, focusing on seeming absurd or professionally incompetent

Antonyms

E

to empower

157 4.2

Give someone the power and confidence to do something

V

to validate

• Formal

87 3.9

To make something officially acceptable by showing proof

How Foolish

to humiliate

• Offensive

414 6.1

to stultify

• Formal

1 9.9

ridicule

• Offensive

53 4.8

to embarrass

642 2.1

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology