verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
defuse a crisis (= stop it developing further )
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Diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis have failed.
defuse tension (= make a situation more friendly )
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He searched for ways of defusing racial tension.
defuse the situation (= make people less angry )
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She’d just been trying to calm Gerry down and defuse the situation.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
attempt
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Threats of a Lords revolt remain, with Mr Patten's attempts to defuse the row having failed.
bomb
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Police evacuated nearby buildings and cordoned off the area while they defused the bomb .
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Some economists say that declining population growth rates have defused the population bomb .
crisis
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With an uneasy peace prevailing along the border the international community launched a series of missions to defuse the crisis .
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Mr Assad defused that crisis by stripping Rifat of power, but Alawite rivalries remain keen.
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Havel asked the legislature to grant him broader powers to defuse the constitutional crisis .
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Diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis have been equally chaotic.
row
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Threats of a Lords revolt remain, with Mr Patten's attempts to defuse the row having failed.
situation
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Negotiation could sometimes defuse these situations and produce more acceptable consequences for both parties.
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I was trying to defuse a volatile situation .
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An argument broke out in the crowded pub after some drink was knocked over and Mr Brown tried to defuse the situation .
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Despite Fiat's efforts to defuse the situation by adopting an ethics code, its problems are not over yet.
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Or do they bide their time and seek to defuse the situation by negotiations via a mediator?
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The only thing she'd been trying to do was calm Guido down and defuse the situation .
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He reckons that defuses the situation .
tension
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This should not defuse the dramatic tension .
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Maybe the fraught confrontation earlier had defused some of the tension building up between them.
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Talks between representatives of the three communities appeared to defuse some of the tension .
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They know how helpful tears are to defuse tension and how constructive their aftermath can be.
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It, too, has been trying to defuse tensions .
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You can always bank on Ally McCoist to defuse the tension .
■ VERB
try
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An argument broke out in the crowded pub after some drink was knocked over and Mr Brown tried to defuse the situation.
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I was trying to defuse a volatile situation.
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There were also obvious international reasons to try to defuse crises before they developed.
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And she has tried to defuse the threat which science undoubtedly can pose against creative writing.
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Mr and Mrs Jones try very hard to defuse difficult situations.
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It, too, has been trying to defuse tensions.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Diplomats are trying to defuse the situation.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Another writer defused my initial fears of motherhood by telling me that she worked more efficiently after her child was born.
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I was trying to defuse a volatile situation.
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Negotiation could sometimes defuse these situations and produce more acceptable consequences for both parties.
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Police found and defused a number of limpet mines.
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The others were found and defused just in time.
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This should not defuse the dramatic tension.
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Worse yet, it may resort to additional expedient action to disguise or defuse the consequences of previous counterproductive actions.