0 present participle of defuse
2 to make a difficult or dangerous situation calmer by reducing or removing its cause:
He thought in terms of preventing decay, of defusing social tensions, of creating a unifying synthesis out of disturbance.
Claiming motherhood and deploying the attendant rhetoric of care and domestic comfort becomes a way of defusing more problematic questions about sexuality.
Yet he stressed cultural tradition's part in sustaining this adaptation, and its heavy dependence upon the wife's skill at defusing inter-male jealousies which could yield maladaptive conflict.
The educational program included the creation of audiovisuals, as well as illustrated reading material explaining the merits of early prenatal diagnosis and defusing wrong concepts about its risks.
Following intensive discussions over the past few weeks we now seem to have found a way of defusing this issue.
Surely that is a way of defusing part of the political argument.
Secondly, expansion should reduce the possibility of future conflict in this area by defusing, preventing and containing the escalation of tensions.
But who can tell what subtle, beneficial defusing effect it might eventually disseminate through the world?
