How to Use incapacitate in a Sentence

incapacitate

verb
  • He was incapacitated by the pain.
  • The class teaches you how to incapacitate an attacker.
  • The stroke left her completely incapacitated.
  • Just enough to incapacitate them and get them off the street for the next day.
    — Peter D'abrosca, FOXNews.com, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Just enough to incapacitate them and get them off the street for the next day.
    — Peter D'abrosca, FOXNews.com, 27 Jan. 2026
  • One sting from the snail is enough to incapacitate a small fish.
    — Gabe Allen, Discover Magazine, 14 Apr. 2022
  • My first shot was far back, right through the hips, so the buck was incapacitated.
    — Joe Genzel, Outdoor Life, 1 June 2020
  • Drink-spiking drugs have been used for years to incapacitate victims, so they can be robbed.
    — Michael Ruiz, Fox News, 25 Apr. 2023
  • Richter struck him in the face, knocking him to the ground and incapacitating him.
    — Katy Moeller, idahostatesman, 24 Oct. 2017
  • Many of those accusers claim to have been drugged and then abused while incapacitated.
    — Alice Gainer, CBS News, 14 May 2025
  • The only way to repair the rift and deal with the incapacitating grief is through art.
    — James Shapiro, The Atlantic, 1 Dec. 2025
  • Living the rest of his life incapacitated like that was too much for Chris to bear.
    — Erika Hayasaki, WIRED, 18 Apr. 2017
  • If at some point the king is incapacitated, certain things will be set in motion.
    — John Otis, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2024
  • If she was incapacitated by a crash, her car could’ve veered into the river.
    — Gloria Casas, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 2025
  • The new round would fire from pistols, shotguns, and grenade launchers and incapacitate them rather than kill them.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 6 Sep. 2018
  • Its flavor can be masked in a glass of wine, and victims can be incapacitated by a standard dose.
    — Cara Tabachnick, Marie Claire, 20 Oct. 2015
  • For the next three months, I was incapacitated by all that sobbing.
    — Meredith Maran, Washington Post, 8 May 2023
  • Less clear is what will happen if Johnson is incapacitated for more than a few days.
    — Luke McGee, CNN, 6 Apr. 2020
  • This is also true if your friend has passed away or is incapacitated and can no longer use their Facebook.
    — Kurt Knutsson, Cyberguy Report, Fox News, 26 Nov. 2024
  • Dry stun refers to the use of a taser on a person to inflict pain without incapacitating the person.
    — Davi Merchan, ABC News, 29 Sep. 2023
  • Elswyth can shoot ivy vines from her hands, wrapping the vines around miscreants to incapacitate them.
    — Chris Hewitt, Boston Herald, 15 May 2026
  • With the dizzying pace of the last 14 months, being incapacitated for even a few hours can be risky.
    — Tia Goldenberg, Los Angeles Times, 29 Dec. 2024
  • Less shocked than crestfallen, Grace incapacitates the kid with a punch.
    — Eren Orbey, The New Yorker, 24 Aug. 2019
  • Killing or incapacitating a police dog could bring a sentence of three to 10 years in prison.
    — Matt Campbell and Jason Hancock, kansascity, 13 Feb. 2018
  • Why did no one check on him the previous day when he was incapacitated by a Gemma fever dream on his couch?
    — Erin Qualey, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2025
  • The government claims the brothers used force and drugs to incapacitate the women.
    — Miami Herald, 9 Mar. 2026
  • The elderly party is alleged to be incapacitated and made a ward of the court.
    — Monique Judge, The Root, 10 Oct. 2017
  • Lynch's status will be reviewed in one year, unless he is found to be no longer incapacitated before that time.
    — Katie Houlis, CBS News, 31 Jan. 2026
  • In the short term, police need better training in the use of non-lethal means of incapacitating suspects, such as tasers.
    — The Economist, 8 Mar. 2018
  • The deputies returned fire and managed to incapacitate the suspect.
    — Chris Pandolfo, Fox News, 20 June 2024

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