How to Use decontaminate in a Sentence

decontaminate

verb
  • Special workers were called in to decontaminate the area after the oil spill.
  • Staff put the man in restraints and took him away to decontaminate.
    — Caitlin McGlade, Charlotte Observer, 11 May 2026
  • Chelsea fire then called in a hazmat team to decontaminate the scene.
    — Ajc Homepage, ajc, 5 Aug. 2017
  • Soon after, inmate trustees were called to decontaminate the cell.
    — Los Angeles Times, 26 Sep. 2019
  • Those doused by the jet fuel were decontaminated with soap and water, and given gowns to wear.
    — Faith Karimi, CNN, 16 Jan. 2020
  • In that case, the birds should be culled and the farm decontaminated before bringing in new chickens.
    — Elena Bruess, San Antonio Express-News, 1 Mar. 2023
  • Most areas have been decontaminated to the point where full bodysuits are no longer required.
    — Vince Beiser, WIRED, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Maybe more cities will step up to decontaminate their waste, like San Francisco.
    — Ellen Airhart, WIRED, 20 June 2018
  • The other workers were decontaminated on the scene and had no symptoms.
    — CBS News, 19 June 2019
  • How much land must be decontaminated, before it's done, and how far must it be cleaned up before people can (or want to) return?
    — Andrew Karam, Popular Mechanics, 11 Mar. 2016
  • Minds used his settlement not only to decontaminate but also to harden his home.
    — Rina Nakano, CBS News, 5 Jan. 2026
  • But human bodies are much harder to decontaminate, since our health depends on our microbes.
    — Sarah Fecht, Popular Science, 6 Feb. 2023
  • Their clothes were removed, and they were decontaminated by the fire department with showers.
    — Dallas News, 10 Aug. 2019
  • The soil needed to be decontaminated of lead and other harmful chemicals because the site had once been a city dump.
    — Mike Hendricks, Kansas City Star, 14 June 2024
  • The team is also testing antiseptics that could be used to decontaminate caves in an attempt to stop the fungus's spread.
    — Andrew Moseman, Discover Magazine, 13 Sep. 2010
  • Those hit by the jet fuel were decontaminated with soap and water, and did not need to be hospitalized, said Sgt.
    — Faith Karimi, CNN, 15 Jan. 2020
  • And somebody sent in a remark that this was precisely the dumbest way to decontaminate an ambulance.
    — Dan Morse, Washington Post, 17 Dec. 2023
  • Items worn in floodwaters should not be worn inside the home and should be decontaminated and washed, authorities said.
    — Los Angeles Times, 4 Apr. 2025
  • Specialist teams came to retrieve the body and decontaminate the roadside, while his family members stood around and wept.
    — Emmet Livingstone, NPR, 15 June 2026
  • The locks were decontaminated one hair at a time using tweezers and a light bleach concentration; they were then rinsed in water and put into a test tube.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 22 Mar. 2023
  • The government has been removing the topsoil in Iitate in an attempt to decontaminate the town.
    — National Geographic, 10 Mar. 2017
  • The question of whether the water could be decontaminated to safe levels is a matter of degree, scientists say.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 24 Dec. 2019
  • The first responders were released from quarantine with instructions to decontaminate at their home stations, just to be on the safe side.
    — Chicago Tribune, 22 Sep. 2022
  • Health officials tested and decontaminated his apartment, and his fiancée at the time and two friends were quarantined.
    — Lilia Luciano, CBS News, 16 May 2026
  • Phoenix Fire Department was first on scene and worked to decontaminate the area and provide aid to the driver of the tractor-trailer.
    — Eshaan Sarup, The Arizona Republic, 15 May 2024
  • But now, researchers have developed a new way to take the genes from all these species and place them in a single bacterial strain that can decontaminate complex waste mixtures.
    — ArsTechnica, 7 May 2025
  • The room where the unconscious inmate was found was sealed off while the Sheriff’s Department works to decontaminate the area.
    — Evan Sernoffsky, SFChronicle.com, 8 Oct. 2019
  • While the site of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant itself is still off-limits, the towns within 3 km of the plant have been decontaminated.
    — Eliza Strickland, IEEE Spectrum, 31 Oct. 2011
  • From there, the walls had to be opened, the insulation had to be changed out and every horizontal surface had to be decontaminated or replaced.
    — Rina Nakano, CBS News, 5 Jan. 2026
  • The bill, which has already passed the House, requires people to decontaminate their boats by cleaning and draining them after leaving the water.
    — USA TODAY, 21 Feb. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'decontaminate.' 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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