Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To eliminate contamination in.
- transitive verb To make safe by eliminating poisonous or otherwise harmful substances, such as noxious chemicals or radioactive material.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To remove contamination or contaminants from, by a cleansing process; -- usually used of radioactive, infectious, or toxic materials.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
remove contamination from something, and thus render itsafe .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb rid of contamination
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Thus Mr. Cameron drafted advertising guru Steve Hilton to "decontaminate" its image.
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Sweden's Fredrik Reinfeldt defeated Sweden's dominant Social Democrats with his "New Moderate" strategy, and he has been an important model for David Cameron, whose strategy has been to "decontaminate" the brand of the British Conservatives by distancing himself from its Thatcherite legacy.
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Monsters protected by sterile uniforms rush in to "decontaminate" the area.
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In some cases, non-susceptible barrier crops are planted around a field in a 15-20 m wide strip to "decontaminate" sucking insects before they reach the susceptible crop.
Chapter 10 1981
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David Cameron used the environment to 'decontaminate' the Tories.
Global Warming RSS Newsfeed info@ecologicalinternet.org (Telegraph: Louise Gra 2010
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But in his rush to 'decontaminate' the Tory Party of 'dinosaurs' such as Winterton, I do fear he is in danger of replacing one elite with another.
Home | Mail Online 2010
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Thus Mr. Cameron drafted advertising guru Steve Hilton to "decontaminate" its image.
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For now, however, Cameron should be praised for surprising his critics - including this one - with a bold move that, in a stroke, does as much to "decontaminate" the brand of Conservatism as have all his superficial image changes since 2005.
Iain Dale's Diary 2009
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They do not need a 'clause 4' moment or to 'decontaminate' themselves.
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A Voyager probe returns to earth, contaminates Ida, and the result is evil robot mayhem in an episode with many Die Hard allusions and the requisite sci-fi “strip down and decontaminate” scene.
The Middleman: The Complete Series » DVDs Worth Watching 2009
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