Definition of "decongest" [decongest]

• To relieve the congestion of (sinuses, for example). (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The Haitian government's Preliminary Damage and Needs Assessment, a document said to have been largely drafted by Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, was put forth in March and advocated an ambitious re-envisioning and decentralizing of Haiti, looking to "decongest," rather than rebuild as before, the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area while advocating a "refounding" of the Haitian state."
• "Anil Radhakrishnan It is expected to 'decongest' long-haul mail, express"
• "On a more serious note, the lawmaker called for authorities to use the outbreak as an opportunity to "decongest" the capital by moving parts of the federal government out of disaster-prone Mexico City, which so dominates national life, trips there are necessary to carry out routine bureaucratic procedures."