verb
- causing or tending to cause cretinism; making someone into a cretin or reducing someone to a state of severe intellectual disability or stunted development
Usage: medical/historical; offensive term; now considered outdated and derogatory; British spelling (American: cretinizing)
Examples
- Severe iodine deficiency in pregnancy can be cretinising to the developing fetus.
- The lack of proper nutrition was cretinising an entire generation of children in the region.
- Medical professionals warned that untreated thyroid disease could be cretinising without intervention.