weaponize

English

Alternative forms

• weaponise (non-Oxford British spelling)

Etymology

weapon +‎ -ize

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɛpənaɪz/

Verb

1. (transitive) To make into a weapon.
   • 2017 October 18, Maya Kosoff, “The Russian troll farm that weaponized Facebook had American boots on the ground”, in Vanity Fair‎^[1]:

     Though most Russian efforts unveiled thus far seem to have been aimed at weaponizing the far right, the existence of BlackMattersUS indicates Russian agents were equally motivated to infiltrate the far left in order to amplify partisan divides that would simultaneously energize Trump’s base and disillusion Hillary’s.

   • 2018 August 2, Kara Swisher, “The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     They have weaponized social media. They have weaponized the First Amendment. They have weaponized civic discourse. And they have weaponized, most of all, politics.

   Anything can be weaponized. A big enough rock, dropped from a sufficient height, is a very good weapon.

2. (transitive) To make more effective as a weapon.

   To weaponize anthrax it is made more distributable, not more virulent.

Derived terms

• weaponizable