How to Use defuse in a Sentence

defuse

verb
  • Skilled negotiators helped defuse the crisis.
  • Now’s the time for a Roth conversion One way to defuse the bomb?
    — Alicia Adamczyk, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2024
  • This led to a tense standoff that police had to defuse.
    — Parth M.n., WIRED, 23 Nov. 2023
  • As the chaos unfurled on-screen, the program scrambled to defuse the tension in the room.
    — Sarah Grant, Rolling Stone, 28 Mar. 2022
  • Part of the mission of the group is to get kids laughing, which in itself is good to defuse stress.
    — Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Aug. 2020
  • The man’s 52-year-old cousin tried to defuse the situation, then Tate swung at the 52-year-old.
    — Stephanie Casanova, chicagotribune.com, 14 Jan. 2022
  • Along with the wider middle seat, the S1 setup could defuse the silent fight with a stranger for control of the armrest.
    — Alex Davies, WIRED, 10 July 2019
  • Those bombs were identical and equipped with timers and bomb squads were able to defuse them.
    — Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR, 21 Feb. 2025
  • Washington and Ankara struck the deal in June to defuse tensions.
    — Fox News, 28 Sep. 2018
  • Congress needs to act to defuse this ticking time bomb.
    — Jacob J. Lew For Cnn Business Perspectives, CNN, 8 Oct. 2021
  • There are two near-term tests of whether the Buenos Aires agreement will defuse trade tensions.
    — Bob Davis, WSJ, 9 Dec. 2018
  • Rayford tried to defuse a fight inside the club, Jackson said, and shots were fired.
    — Carol Robinson | [email protected], al, 11 Oct. 2021
  • The delay is a tactic that the government uses to defuse the anger.
    — Jiayang Fan, The New Yorker, 17 June 2019
  • There's a big meal, hours to fill and family tensions to defuse.
    — Author: Lisa Bonos, Anchorage Daily News, 27 Nov. 2019
  • The army deployed to defuse the tensions and free the family, who had taken shelter in the house with the body.
    — Star Tribune, 1 Aug. 2021
  • At-bats feel like trying to defuse a ticking time bomb.
    — Christopher L. Gasper, BostonGlobe.com, 28 Feb. 2023
  • But her staff has had to learn to endure and defuse confrontations.
    — Eileen Sullivan, New York Times, 19 May 2024
  • In the game, Spider-Man has to ascend a building to defuse bombs planted by the Green Goblin.
    — Dan Gvozden, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 June 2023
  • Benjamin, an Ohio native, was killed in Afghanistan in 2009 while trying to defuse a bomb.
    — Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11 Nov. 2019
  • The light-hearted online banter seems to be at least in part an attempt to defuse that.
    — Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Aug. 2023
  • Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, has tried to defuse the age issue by turning it into a joke.
    — Michael Collins, USA TODAY, 12 July 2024
  • Those fears compelled both leaders to defuse the crisis.
    — Paul Avey, Foreign Affairs, 6 Mar. 2025
  • The unit had four bomb experts, two of whom detected mines that the other two could defuse.
    — WSJ, 7 June 2021
  • Treating a joke as if it were meant seriously is the best way to defuse it.
    — Judith Martin, The Mercury News, 9 Aug. 2024
  • Dorn told police that Brown, his nephew, stepped in to try to defuse the tension, the documents say.
    — Peter Hermann, Washington Post, 1 Sep. 2023
  • That could help defuse tensions between the world’s two largest economies, at least somewhat.
    — New York Times, 27 June 2018
  • Silva is shown trying to defuse Newlon’s anger by telling him to relax.
    — Robert Salonga, The Mercury News, 16 Aug. 2019
  • If things go awry, the staff looks for ways to defuse the tension quickly, without letting things boil over.
    — Katie Kelly Bell, Robb Report, 21 Sep. 2024
  • On his end, McAfee tried to defuse the conflict during his show last week and again on Tuesday.
    — Christopher Brito, CBS News, 9 Jan. 2024
  • One way to defuse tensions would be for Panama to cancel its leases with the company, although that could lead to legal challenges and steep costs.
    — Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'defuse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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