Confused? No, defused
When not to cut the yellow wire
The difference between defuse and diffuse seems to be a boggling one for many writers. Though the words sound similar, their meanings are quite different.
Defuse means to disarm or to neutralize. When you stop an explosion by clipping the yellow wire that connects the timer to the explosive, you’re defusing the bomb.
Diffuse means scattered, spread out thinly, or moving in many directions. If you cut the wrong yellow wire, you’ll end up in diffuse pieces because the bomb will not have been defused.
How can we diffuse a bomb if we don’t know what it’s made of?
Actually, you don’t have to know a thing about a bomb to diffuse it. Defusing it requires a great deal more knowledge of what it’s made of and how it’s connected together.
The sun’s rays were defused by the canopy of leaves rustling in the wind high above.
The leaves are scattering the sunlight, and sunlight doesn’t explode, so the sun’s rays were diffused.
Diffusing situations like this was something I’d always excelled at.
Since the idea here is to prevent emotions from exploding, the correct usage is “Defusing situations like this…”
All the team had to do was diffuse the jacket and subdue the enemy.
Pretty sure this hostage would prefer to have the explosive jacket she’s unwillingly wearing defused, rather than spread widely across the scene.
I stepped between them, trying to diffuse the situation.
Another emotional explosion prevented — he defused the situation.
I forced myself to laugh, hoping to diffuse this quickly.
And ditto.
Defuse no doubt originated with dynamite and similar explosives where an actual fuse had to be lit; when it burned all the way down — boom! If the situation or object is explosive in nature, you need to defuse it. Not diffuse.
The Snarky Editor comes out of hiding occasionally to comment on the awkward, silly, and sometimes hilarious editing errors found in published books.
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