weaponize

verb
/ˈwɛpənaɪz/

Etymology

From weapon + -ize. First use appears c. 1938. See cite below.

  1. derived from *wēbnom
  2. inherited from *wēpną
  3. inherited from *wāpn
  4. inherited from wǣpn
  5. inherited from wepen
  6. suffixed as weaponize — “weapon + ize

Definitions

  1. To make into a weapon.

    • Anything can be weaponized. A big enough rock, dropped from a sufficient height, is a very good weapon.
    • The writer has to an unusually high degree the gift of being able to coin a telling phrase, though I do not like the verb in the sentence "However unassailable their arguments may be they could not weaponize their strength."
  2. To make more effective as a weapon.

    • To weaponize anthrax it is made more distributable, not more virulent.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for weaponize. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA