Think you'll mostly hear that on TV shows and some News.
The military would use terminology like "neutralize", which means to eliminate the threat, usually by killing the target.
The military has a goal of eliminating targets - the police have a goal of arresting suspects.
I had to put vinegar on Yang's skin one time to "neutralize" his chemical burns.
Neither acid nor base.
Deactivated.
Defused
Killing a target or disarming a bomb.
To make neither positive or negative.
This is about what God really did on the seventh day of creation. He didn't really "rest" as scholars have mistranslated; he reviewed. After all, any competent engineer who built something as big as the universe would do the same.
And in that review he realised there was an imbalance in the atomic structure of the elements for, carelessly, he had made them from only protons and electrons. To avoid them becoming unstable he added neutrons. That is, he neutralised them.