as in damages
to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of
already impaired by a crack, the windshield shattered upon impact with the baseball
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of impairs
If rain severely impairs your vision, pull over and wait for conditions to improve.
—
Bay Area Weather Report, Mercury News, 25 Sep. 2025
The amendment should define specific criteria for incapacity, including mental illness, cognitive decline, substance abuse, or any condition that substantially impairs judgment or decision-making capacity.
—Lynn Schmidt, Twin Cities, 19 Sep. 2025
If rain severely impairs your vision, pull over and wait for conditions to improve.
—Southern California Weather Report, Oc Register, 19 Sep. 2025
While alcohol typically impairs coordination and reaction time, drugs present a more complex picture.
—Andrew Yockey, The Conversation, 11 Sep. 2025
This imbalance undermines trust, impairs decision-making and fuels agency problems.
—Michael Hilb, Forbes.com, 9 Sep. 2025
The disease impairs cells’ mitochondria, which are kind of like tiny batteries that generate energy for cells to function correctly.
—Erika Edwards, NBC news, 18 Aug. 2025
Muscle loss reduces calorie expenditure and impairs glucose metabolism, contributing to fat accumulation and potentially leading to Type 2 diabetes.
—Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 14 Aug. 2025
Ahead of a 2024 documentary chronicling Williams’ deteriorating mental and physical state, her camp shared that she had been diagnosed with dementia and primary progressive aphasia, which impairs the ability to understand language.
—Winston Cho, HollywoodReporter, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for impairs
Verb
-
These instructions help turn off the harmful protein that damages brain cells.—
-
Every departure damages a team’s ability to deliver value to customers.—
Verb
-
Automobility directly or indirectly causes one in 34 deaths annually, injures more than 100 million people a year, and has killed as many people as the two World Wars combined.—
-
If a dog that has not been officially declared dangerous severely injures or kills a person when unprovoked, authorities may confiscate the dog, and the dog’s owner is liable for the incident.—
Verb
-
Deadly holiday weekend mars broad crime drop The back-and-forth followed a Labor Day weekend of deadly violence in Chicago worse than in the previous two years, with seven people shot to death, according to preliminary Chicago Police Department reports.—
-
Valuing a project at cost of production rather than value in an arm’s length sale—common in all economic statistics—especially mars Chinese data.—
Verb
-
Over the longer term, forecasters will watch whether the vortex remains stable or weakens later this fall.—
-
This special assurance for a specific competitor weakens competition.—
Verb
-
This inefficiency is invisible during small-scale development tests but completely cripples an application’s performance under the heavy load of a real production environment.—
-
An ongoing alien siege cripples the world’s militaries, infrastructure, and communication centers but Will can run Premiere Pro, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and remote control a Tesla all at the same time.—
Verb
-
If the veracity and reliability of government data are regularly criticized and devalued by the administration anytime the facts contradict the administration’s positions, and those who speak out are at risk of losing their jobs, trust in all government data, and the agencies themselves, erodes.—
-
Every false certainty erodes the trust that holds the fragile bridge between patients and their doctors.—
Verb
-
Perhaps surprisingly, Rose says that losing in chess hurts a little more than failing to win on the basketball court used to.—
-
Actually, her back hurts really bad.—
Verb
-
But the broader debate—the question of when, exactly, the pursuit of athletic achievement compromises the bulk of the achievement itself—has begun to reverberate far beyond the mountains.—
-
Resting longer than one minute compromises the metabolic stress of training.—
Cite this Entry
“Impairs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/impairs. Accessed 1 Oct. 2025.
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share