debility

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • n debility the state of being weak in health or body (especially from old age)
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • n Debility The state of being weak; weakness; feebleness; languor. "The inconveniences of too strong a perspiration, which are debility , faintness, and sometimes sudden death."
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n debility The state of being weak or feeble; feebleness; lack of strength or vigor.
    • n debility Specifically In medicine, that condition of the body, or of any of its organs, in which the vital functions are discharged with less than normal vigor, the amount of power and activity displayed being reduced.
    • n debility In astrology, a weakness of a planet, due to its position: the reverse of a dignity. Synonyms Debility, Infirmity, Imbecility, all express a want of strength. Debility is rarely used except of physical weakness; infirmity applies to both bodily and mental weakness; imbecility has passed from bodily weakness to mental, so as to be obsolete in application to the former. Debility is a general insufficiency of strength; infirmity, whether physical or mental, is local or special: as, his infirmity is lameness; he has various mental infirmities. Imbecility is general, and may amount to idiocy. See disease and illness.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • Debility weakness and languor: a weak action of the animal functions
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Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
L. debilitas, fr. debilis, weak, prob. fr. de-, + habilis, able: cf. F. débilité,. See Able (a.)
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
L. debilitāre, ātum—debilis, weak—de, not, habilis, able. See Ability.

Usage

In literature:

Psi powers crop up more often than they should in folks who are marked with a debility.
"Vigorish" by Gordon Randall Garrett
I feel that it will be very painful for me to address the Conference, on account of physical debility.
"A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention" by Lucius Eugene Chittenden
Suffering from nervous debility, weakness of body and mind, loss of memory, mental and physical exhaustion.
"Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations" by William Howe
Mrs. Shepard has entirely recovered from her nervous debility, and I know she will be sorry when we have to part company.
"Up the River" by Oliver Optic
Great debility, pale countenance, loss of appetite, legs swelled, urine in small quantity.
"An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses" by William Withering
There was also an ill-defined syndrome, termed variously Mesopotamitis or acute debility, or the Fear of God.
"In Mesopotamia" by Martin Swayne
Moreover, deaths of people at that age are rarely due to senile debility.
"The World's Greatest Books - Volume 15 - Science" by Various
How often is debility of mind, and even badness of heart concealed under a splendid exterior!
"Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World" by Anonymous
In the following cases, I will include some where the impotency was not perfect, where the conditions were merely those of sexual debility.
"The Electric Bath" by George M. Schweig
It usually commences with unnatural sallowness, debility, and low spirits.
"The Ladies Book of Useful Information" by Anonymous
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In poetry:

There's not on earth a thing more vile and base
Than, lacking Thee, I feel myself to be:
For pardon prays my own debility,
Yearning in vain to lift me to Thy face.
"Lxvii. _a prayer for faith._" by Michelangelo
And since helmets of steel bone rind
The great heads of the Numerous Mind
No glories of your breast and thighs
Shall these poor verses advertise-
Only the dry debility
Of a spent wind in a winter tree.
"The Progress Of Œnia" by Allen Tate

In news:

Faecal incontinence can affect individuals of all ages and in many cases greatly impairs quality of life, but incontinent patients should not accept their debility as either inevitable or untreatable.
thelancet.com
Faecal incontinence can affect individuals of all ages and in many cases greatly impairs quality of life, but incontinent patients should not accept their debility as either inevitable or untreatable.
thelancet.com
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In science:

Hemos determinado nuevas velocidades radiales las cuales permiten confirmar la pertenencia al c´umulo de nuevas galaxias d´ebiles, as´ı como la identificaci´on de ob jetos de fondo con caracter´ısticas interesantes.
GEMINI-GMOS spectroscopy in the Antlia cluster
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Related words