I'm looking for a word to describe rendering a person powerless, for example somebody who is causing some grief to a group, and you are able to say something that destroys their argument and leaves them without a leg to stand on.
An example sentence would be:
"I _____ed him by expertly destroying his faulty logic".
I feel the word is on the tip of my tongue but I cannot place it.
See neutralize. The Oxford dictionary defines it as
Make (something) ineffective by applying an opposite force or effect.
Make ineffective.
Popular use: The army neutralized the threat, Radical views neutralized by the opposition.
Also look up synonyms such as counterpoise.
I like disarm for this.
- to deprive of the means of attack or defense:
The lack of logic disarmed his argument.
"I defanged/declawed him by expertly destroying his faulty logic".
ODO:
defang VERB
[WITH OBJECT] often as adjective defanged
Render harmless or ineffectual.‘the military, demoralized and defanged, gave up their campaign’
‘He's very much aware of the fact that humor can be used to defang a problematic issue.’
declaw VERB
[WITH OBJECT]
1.1 Make harmless or less threatening.
‘We shouldn't be surprised that the Tories are warming up to our metropolis just when they need ways to declaw the Liberals.’
Neuter
transitive verb
2 : to remove the force or effectiveness of
In your sentence,
Note this particular phrasing (you neuter him rather than his argument) puts the emphasis on you removing his ability to cause grief.
Similar to @vickyace's neutralize, which I like is the word
incapacitate
make unable to perform a certain action
Source: Macmillian
That is, you remove someone's capacity [to do something]. This is frequently used in the firearms community, when talking about a weapon's stopping power:
Stopping power is the ability of a firearm or other weapon to cause enough ballistic trauma to a target (human or animal) to immediately incapacitate (and thus stop) the target. This contrasts with lethality in that stopping power pertains only to a weapon's ability to incapacitate quickly, regardless of whether death ultimately occurs.
Source: Wikipedia article on stopping power
You can see here it only describes the power to remove someone's ability to act.
The drawback of this word, like neutralize, is that it's not specific to incapacitating powerful people. For that, you may consider dethrone, but that has its own limitations.
Humbled (v)
"I humbled him by expertly destroying his faulty logic."
From Mariam-Webster:
to destroy the power, independence, or prestige of
This one directly emphasizes the loss of power, while at the same time conveys their status change in the eyes of the group.
Eviscerated
1
a : to take out the entrails of : disembowel
b : to deprive of vital content or force
"Eviscerate." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2017.
castrate: to render impotent or deprive of vitality especially by psychological means-(M-W)
This is obviously more applicable if the powerful person is male, but the term can be applied more generally. For example the dictionary uses an example of castrating a piece of legislation by removing the enforcement provisions. Powerful women, especially who use their position in a ruthless way, are often referred to disparagingly in male terms, including an expression like this.
Castrate can mean a somewhat "neutral" sense of simply removing their power, but it can also describe humiliating them in the process.
"I **neutered** him by expertly destroying his faulty logic".
I spayed her by expertly destroying her faulty logic has the right ring to it...
Reading your question, it seems to me that you re implying that the word needs to evoke the feeling of the person who has been brought down.
What about crush? It fits your main stipulation,
I'm looking for a word to describe rendering a person powerless
and can certainly include the elements of "power" and "group dynamics" in your example, albeit without specifically addressing them.
Here is the pertinent entry from Macmillan:
to completely defeat someone who is opposing you, especially by using force or violence Any anti-government protest was swiftly crushed.
To defeat someone in a game, competition or argument: defeat, win, beat... to easily defeat someone who is competing against you
While crush has emotional content, in the sense that the person in question might feel crushed, the word deflate hints at the idea of "puffed up" pride as well.
Applying it to the example in the question:
My expert destruction of his faulty logic left him completely deflated.
2 Make (someone) suddenly lose confidence or feel dispirited. ‘the news left him feeling utterly deflated’
to make someone feel less confident or important Peter’s comments completely deflated the boy’s confidence.
to make someone feel less important or less confident
Otherwise, some phrases express your idea well:
I was able to put him in his place with my expert destruction of his faulty logic.
Oxford Online: put someone in his or her place
I was able to knock him down (quite) a few pegs with my expert destruction of his faulty logic.
Oxford Online: take someone down a peg or two
Both of these phrases manage to capture the ideas of crushing and humbling, showing that the person had been feeling superior to you.
One option would be nullify, which has a meaning, in this context, similar to neutralize.
American Heritage Dictionary:
nullify: To counteract the force or effectiveness of.
COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary:
To nullify something means to make it have no effect.
Collins English Dictionary:
nullify: to render ineffective or useless; cancel out
If you look at the dictionaries, you’ll see that it also has a specific legal definition with much the same meaning.
For a male, there's also emasculated, which is a synonym for castrated, meaning "to deprive of strength or vigor; weaken." The American president Theodore Roosevelt once called the American-born British writer Henry James "A little emasculated mass of inanity".
Silence
To curtail the expression of; suppress: silencing all criticism; silenced their opponents. (American Heritage)
Example:
I silenced him by revealing his faulty logic.
The credit must go to @user227155, who explains: the only sign that you have out-argued a difficult person is that they respond with silence (i.e. admit they have no counter).
Hamstring
verb (used with object), hamstrung, hamstringing.
- to disable by cutting the hamstring or hamstrings; cripple.
- to render powerless or useless; thwart: Their efforts were hamstrung by stubborn pride.
OP, the way you asked the question is certainly apropos :)
... and leaves them without a leg to stand on.
"I humiliated him by expertly destroying his faulty logic."
From Merriam-Webster:
to reduce (someone) to a lower position in one's own eyes or others' eyes : to make (someone) ashamed or embarrassed
I think this one may be a little strong, but it would emphasize the social aspect of exposing the faulty logic (i.e., being wrong publicly). It also works well for describing someone in a group because it implies that there are others' opinions involved.
Mitigate
1: to cause to become less harsh or hostile
2a: to make less severe or painful
2b: extenuate
Source: m-w.com
