Self-impotent
Definitions
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
- Self-impotent (bot.) unable to fertilise itself
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Quotations
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“The self-styled intellectual who is impotent with pen and ink hungers to write history with sword and blood.”
Etymology
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
A.S. self, seolf, sylf; Dut. zelf, Ger. selbe, Goth. silba.
Usage
In literature:
See "Origin of Species," Edition I., page 251, for Herbert's observations on self-impotence in Hippeastrum.
"More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II" by Charles Darwin
He had wit enough to torture half his waking hours with self-analysis, and to grit his teeth at his own impotence.
"Children of the Mist" by Eden Phillpotts
The whole body trembled in impotent anger and outraged self-respect.
"Ben Blair" by Will Lillibridge
And the minister dropped his face lower, over the edge of his desk; and the hot tears of misery and self-reproach and impotence began to run.
"By What Authority?" by Robert Hugh Benson
SELF-IMPOTENCE in plants, ii.
"The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume II (of 2)" by Charles Darwin
Their very craft has turned to impotence and self-destruction.
"Literature in the Making" by Various
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In poetry:
As once in time on overgrowing banks
The moisten creature holed in despair
Of self impotence, feeling on its back
Wings - still unformed and very feeble pair, -
The moisten creature holed in despair
Of self impotence, feeling on its back
Wings - still unformed and very feeble pair, -
"The Sixth Sense" by Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev