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decompensate. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
From de- + compensate.
Pronunciation
Verb
decompensate (third-person singular simple present decompensates, present participle decompensating, simple past and past participle decompensated)
- (medicine, psychology, of a bodily organ or mental state) To deteriorate in function due to an inability to invoke normal defensive mechanisms that compensate for ailments and other stresses.
1967, Virginia Pidgeon, “The Infant with Congenital Heart Disease”, in The American Journal of Nursing, volume 67, number 2, page 291:The infant whose heart is decompensating has a rapid pulse, rapid respirations, and respiratory distress.
1983, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, “A Proposal for the Aftercare of Chronic Psychiatric Patients”, in Medical Anthropology Quarterly, volume 14, number 2, pages 11–12:In some cases, the fragile individual, overwhelmed by the implicit demands and expectations for sociability, coherence, and "constructive" behavior, rapidly decompensates, taking flight into psychosis or protective withdrawal.