"defang" meaning in English

See defang in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /diːˈfæŋ/ [UK] Forms: defangs [present, singular, third-person], defanging [participle, present], defanged [participle, past], defanged [past]
Rhymes: -æŋ Etymology: From de- + fang. Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|de|fang}} de- + fang Head templates: {{en-verb}} defang (third-person singular simple present defangs, present participle defanging, simple past and past participle defanged), {{tlb|en|transitive}} (transitive)
  1. (literal) To remove the fangs from (something). Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-defang-en-verb-useAFMu- Categories (other): English terms prefixed with de- Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with de-: 54 46
  2. (figuratively) To render (something) harmless. Tags: figuratively, transitive Synonyms (render harmless): declaw, detooth Translations (render harmless): ξεδοντιάζω (xedontiázo) (Greek)
    Sense id: en-defang-en-verb-uTnViti9 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with de-, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Greek translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 31 69 Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with de-: 54 46 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 32 68 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 30 70 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 19 81 Disambiguation of Terms with Greek translations: 22 78 Disambiguation of 'render harmless': 2 98 Disambiguation of 'render harmless': 2 98

Inflected forms

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        "(literal) To remove the fangs from (something)."
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        "(figuratively) To render (something) harmless."
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          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "lang_code": "el",
          "roman": "xedontiázo",
          "sense": "render harmless",
          "word": "ξεδοντιάζω"
        }
      ]
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      "ipa": "/diːˈfæŋ/",
      "tags": [
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    {
      "rhymes": "-æŋ"
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        "(literal) To remove the fangs from (something)."
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      ],
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        "(figuratively) To render (something) harmless."
      ],
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      "word": "declaw"
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      "sense": "render harmless",
      "word": "ξεδοντιάζω"
    }
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}

Download raw JSONL data for defang meaning in English (2.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-19 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (d1270d2 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.