paralyse

paralyse — verb

1. to take away someone's power to move a body part, or all of the body, usually be

1.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

to take away someone's power to move a body part, or all of the body, usually because of an injury, illness, or strong drug.

Example

The car crash paralysed Marcus from the waist down.

paralyse + somebody + from + body part

A spider bite can paralyse small frogs within seconds.

subject is the cause (toxin/animal)

Common collocations
  • paralyse the legs
  • paralyse the muscles
  • be paralysed from the waist down
  • be paralysed for life
  • partially paralyse
Synonyms
  • immobilise

    more clinical; can include splints or restraint, not only loss of nerve function

  • cripple

    older and now often considered offensive when used of people; safer for machines

  • numb

    loss of feeling only, not movement; usually temporary

Antonyms
  • revive

    to bring back movement or consciousness

Grammar Patterns

paralyse + somebody/something

be paralysed (from + body part)

be paralysed by + cause

Usage Note

Frequently passive, especially with 'from the waist down', 'from the neck down', or 'in [body part]'. Subject in active voice is usually the cause (an injury, drug, or animal), not the affected person.

Common Mistakes

The doctor paralysed his leg.
The injury paralysed his leg.
the subject should be the cause (injury, drug, illness), not the doctor or the patient.
Marcus paralysed from the waist down.
Marcus was paralysed from the waist down.
this sense is almost always passive when the affected person is the subject.

2. to stop a place, system, or person from doing what they normally do — for exampl

2.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

to stop a place, system, or person from doing what they normally do — for example, when a strike halts trains, or when fear keeps someone from speaking or moving.

Example

A two-day strike paralysed the buses and trains across Taipei.

subject = event; object = transport system

Heavy snow paralysed the airport for almost twelve hours.

weather event paralysing infrastructure

Common collocations
  • paralyse the economy
  • paralyse the city
  • paralyse the network
  • be paralysed by fear
  • be paralysed with shock
Synonyms
  • cripple

    stronger; suggests long-lasting damage to a system or organisation

  • freeze

    more about a sudden, brief stop, especially of a person's body

  • shut down

    more complete stop; often deliberate, not caused by panic or disruption

Antonyms
  • mobilise

    to get a group or system moving and active again

Grammar Patterns

paralyse + something (system/city/economy)

be paralysed by + fear/event

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: here nothing physical is damaged — a city, network, or person is simply unable to act. In the passive 'be paralysed by + emotion' (fear, shock, grief), the cause is feeling, not injury.

Common Mistakes

The strike paralysed.
The strike paralysed the city.
this sense always needs an object naming what was stopped.
Fear paralysed her body for one minute.
Fear paralysed her for a moment.
when the cause is an emotion, the object is usually the person, not a body part.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four words describe loss of movement, but they pull from different worlds. 'Paralyse' is the medical default — it points to nerves and muscles that no longer respond, often after injury, stroke, or poison. 'Immobilise' is more practical and clinical: a doctor immobilises a broken arm with a cast, so the cause is usually external restraint, not nerve damage. 'Cripple', once common in medical writing, is now widely considered offensive when used of people; today it sits more comfortably with machines or organisations ('the storm crippled the power grid'). 'Numb' covers loss of feeling only, not movement, and is usually temporary — for example, a dentist numbs a tooth before drilling. Compare: 'The fall paralysed his legs' (he cannot move them), 'The nurse immobilised his leg' (she strapped it down), 'The cold numbed his fingers' (he can still wiggle them, just cannot feel).

paralyse ↗immobilisecripplenumb

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • paralysed from the waist down
  • paralysed for life
  • paralysed by fear
  • paralysed with shock
  • paralyse the economy

Prepositions

  • from (the waist/neck) down
  • by (fear/shock/an injury)
  • in (one arm/one leg)
  • with (fear/shock)

Etymology

GreekLate LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Comes from Greek 'paralyein', built from 'para-' (meaning 'beside' or 'amiss') and 'lyein' ('to loosen' — the same root behind 'analysis'). The original idea was something 'loosened on one side', describing a body half that had given way. The word travelled through Late Latin 'paralysis' and Old French 'paralisie' before settling into English in the 1500s as the noun 'paralysis'. The verb 'paralyse' was formed from the noun in the early 1800s, and the figurative sense (a strike paralysing a city) followed quickly in the same century. British English keeps the spelling 'paralyse'; American English shifted to 'paralyze' in the late 1800s under Noah Webster's broader push to swap '-ise' endings for '-ize'.