Definition of "demyelinate" [demyelinate]

• To destroy or remove the myelin sheath of (a nerve fiber), as through disease. (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.

• "Again, these chemicals demyelinate the Purkinje axon creating problems with balance, visual motor processing and integration and auditory processing."
• "If the name arachnoiditis makes you imagine “land of the spiders,” that’s no coincidence: the nerve network that the immune system begins to demyelinate looks something like a spider web’s intricate fibers spanning out from the lower spinal cord."