enervate
To weaken or reduce the energy of someone or something.
ExampleThe long delay seemed to enervate the reform movement.
ExampleThe oppressive heat enervated the hikers before they reached the ridge.
Usage Scenarios
Loss of momentum
Use enervate when delays, bureaucracy, or disappointment drains a movement's energy.
ExampleMonths of procedural conflict enervated the campaign.
Physical or mental exhaustion
Use it when heat, illness, or monotony leaves people weakened.
ExampleThe enervating lecture left the audience restless and tired.
Usage Guide
Use enervate when a GRE sentence describes something that weakens energy, force, confidence, morale, or momentum.
Strong chunks include enervate a movement, enervating heat, enervating delay, and enervated by illness. The cause drains strength rather than adding it.
Do not read enervate as energize. GRE often tests this false impression because the word begins with en- but means weaken.
Word Forms & Word Building
Enervate comes from a root connected with nerves or sinews, with the older idea of taking strength out of the body.
Enervation is formed with the noun suffix -ion and means the state or process of being weakened.
Enervating is the -ing adjective form in phrases such as enervating heat, enervating delay, and enervating routine.
Meaning Boundaries
Enervate vs energize
Energize means give energy or strength. Enervate means drain energy, reduce force, or leave someone weakened.
Enervate vs mitigate
Mitigate reduces severity of a negative effect. Enervate weakens energy, strength, or force.
Register
Enervate is formal and common in GRE vocabulary about fatigue, decline, morale, and weakened force.
Memory Tricks
Think energy leaving, not entering. Enervate drains force.
Pair it with heat, delay, illness, bureaucracy, or monotony because these often weaken people or movements.
When a GRE option looks like energize but the clue says weaken, enervate may be the trick answer.
Common Traps
Do not choose enervate when the sentence needs strengthen or energize.
Do not use enervate for a mild inconvenience unless it actually drains energy or force.
Remember that enervating describes the cause: enervating heat causes people to feel weak.