defuse vs diffuse :

defuse or diffuse

You defuse a dangerous situation by treating it like a bomb and removing its fuse; to diffuse, in contrast, is to spread something out: “Bob’s cheap cologne diffused throughout the room, wrecking the wine-tasting."

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Definitions
  defuse
  • v  remove the triggering device from
  diffuse
  • v  move outward
  • v  spread or diffuse through
  • v  cause to become widely known
  • s  spread out; not concentrated in one place
    a large diffuse organization
  • a  (of light) transmitted from a broad light source or reflected
  • s  lacking conciseness
    a diffuse historical novel
News & Articles
  defuse
  • With no easy options, Brazil's Rousseff strains to manage unrest
    By Jeferson Ribeiro and Brian Winter BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Few people in Brazil know what it's like to be 20-something and angry at the government quite like President Dilma Rousseff. Rousseff, a Marxist guerrilla during the 1960s who fought against a military dictatorship, now finds herself on the other side of power. She's struggling to defuse protests by more than 1 million people in ...
    June 24, 2013 - Reuters via Yahoo! News
  • Putin offers gift to defuse flap over Super Bowl ring
    Putin offers gift to defuse flap over Super Bowl ring Published Jun 22, 2013 06:02PM MDT Moscow • Facing what he drolly called a “complicated international problem,” Vladimir Putin says he’s ready to give the New England Patriots’ owner custom jewelry to compensate for the Super Bowl ring that some imply the Russian president pocketed. The Super Bowl ring changed hands in 2005 when Robert Kraft ...
    June 23, 2013 - The Salt Lake Tribune
  • Serena tries to end Sharapova row
    Serena Williams tried to defuse her war of words with Maria Sharapova on Sunday as the Wimbledon champion claimed she had apologised to the Russian for criticising her private life.
    June 23, 2013 - Fox News
  diffuse