par ‧ a ‧ lyse BrE AmE British English , paralyze American English /ˈpærəlaɪz/ verb [transitive]
1 . if something paralyses you, it makes you lose the ability to move part or all of your body, or to feel it:
Her legs were partly paralysed in the crash.
2 . to make something unable to operate normally:
Fear of unemployment is paralysing the economy.
Motor traffic was paralysed in much of the city.
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THESAURUS
■ to injure yourself or someone else
▪ hurt to damage part of your body, or someone else’s body:
She slipped on the ice and hurt herself badly.
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Be careful you don’t hurt anyone with that knife.
▪ injure to hurt yourself quite severely, or to be hurt in an accident or fighting:
One of our players has injured his leg, and will be out of the game for weeks.
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Four people have been seriously injured on the Arizona highway.
▪ wound to deliberately hurt someone using a weapon such as a knife or gun:
The gunmen shot and killed twelve people and wounded three others.
▪ maim /meɪm/ [usually passive] to hurt someone very severely, especially so that they lose an arm, leg etc, often as the result of an explosion:
In countries where there are landmines, people are killed and maimed daily.
▪ break to hurt a part of your body by breaking a bone in it:
The X-ray showed that I had broken my wrist.
▪ bruise to hurt a part of your body when you fall on it or hit it, causing a dark mark to appear on your skin:
Cathy fell off her bike and bruised her legs badly.
▪ sprain/twist to hurt your knee, wrist, shoulder etc by suddenly twisting it while you are moving:
I jumped down from the wall and landed awkwardly, spraining my ankle.
▪ strain/pull to hurt one of your muscles by stretching it or using it too much:
When you are lifting heavy loads, be careful not to strain a back muscle.
▪ dislocate to damage a joint in your body in a way that moves the two parts of the joint out of their normal position:
Our best batsman dislocated his shoulder during training.
▪ paralyse [usually passive] to make someone lose the ability to move part or all of their body:
A climbing accident had left him paralysed from the chest down.