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inhibit

Syllabification: (in·hib·it)
Pronunciation: /inˈhibit/

Translate inhibit | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of inhibit

verb (inhibits, inhibiting, inhibited)

[with object]
  • 1hinder, restrain, or prevent (an action or process):cold inhibits plant growth
  • prevent or prohibit (someone) from doing something:the earnings rule inhibited some retired people from working
  • Psychology voluntarily or involuntarily restrain the direct expression of (an instinctive impulse).
  • chiefly Physiology & Biochemistry (chiefly of a drug or other substance) slow down or prevent (a process, reaction, or function) or reduce the activity of (an enzyme or other agent).
  • 2make (someone) self-conscious and unable to act in a relaxed and natural way:his mother’s strictures would always inhibit him
  • 3(in ecclesiastical law) forbid (a member of the clergy) to exercise clerical functions.

Derivatives

inhibitive

Pronunciation: /-tiv/

adjective

inhibitory

Pronunciation: /-ˌtôrē/

adjective

Origin:

late Middle English (in the sense 'forbid (a person) to do something'): from Latin inhibere 'hinder', from in- 'in' + habere 'hold'

Spelling rule

Do not double the final consonant when adding endings that begin with a vowel to a word that ends in a vowel plus a consonant, if the stress is not at the end of the word (as in target): (inhibits, inhibiting, inhibited).

inhibit in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of inhibit in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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