We report an experimental study on the catalytic effect of solid water on the reactivity of hydrogen abstraction (H-abstraction) from dimethyl ether (DME) in the low-temperature solid DME-H2O complex. When DME reacted with deuterium atoms on a surface at 15-25 K, it was efficiently deuterated via successive tunneling H-abstraction and deuterium (D)-addition reactions. The 'effective rate constant for DME-H2O + D was found to be about 20 times smaller than that of pure DME + D. This provides the first evidence that the presence of solid water has a negative catalytic effect on tunneling H-abstraction reactions. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.