detoxify

• de-toxify

Attested since 1905 (twelve years earlier than toxify), from de- +‎ tox- +‎ -ify. (Detoxicate is attested one year earlier, since 1904.)

detoxify (third-person singular simple present detoxifies, present participle detoxifying, simple past and past participle detoxified)

1. To remove foreign and harmful substances from something.
   • 1907, John Howland, “Some possible etiological factors in the recurrent vomiting of children”, in Transactions of the American Pediatric Society, volume 18, page 295:

     As a result of this, in some way or other, unknown to us, a diminished power of oxidation results and the organism loses the power to detoxify substances absorbed from the intestine which have been present there in excess; […]

   • 2015 May 5, Angelique Chrisafis, “Front National family feud goes nuclear as Jean-Marie Le Pen disowns Marine”, in The Guardian‎:

     The severe disciplinary action taken by his daughter—who since taking over the FN in 2011 has led a drive to “detoxify” the party and move it away from the racist, jackbooted, antisemitic imagery of the past—was supposed to silence her father.

2. To make something that is harmful more benign.
   • 2023, Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, The Two Moralities: Conservatives, Liberals, and the Roots of Our Political Divide, page 2:

     We can either break as a nation or find a way to detoxify our politics.

• detoxicate

• detoxifiable
• detoxification
• detoxifier