deter
To prevent something from happening.
Other meanings
To persuade someone not to do something; to discourage.
“Their boss deterred them from both taking holidays at the same time, claiming he couldn't manage it all on his own.”
To distract someone from something.
Related words
- determent
- deterrability
- deterrable
- deterrency
- deterrer
- undeterring
- nondeterred
- undeterred
Example sentences
Word history
From Latin "dēterreō" (deter, discourage).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “deter” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.