Imbecile
['ɪmbɪsiːl] or ['ɪmbɪsaɪl]
Definition
(a.) Destitute of strength, whether of body or mind; feeble; impotent; esp., mentally wea; feeble-minded; as, hospitals for the imbecile and insane.
(n.) One destitute of strength; esp., one of feeble mind.
(v. t.) To weaken; to make imbecile; as, to imbecile men's courage.
Edited by Ellis
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Weak, feeble, infirm, helpless, decrepit.[2]. Foolish, witless, drivelling, idiotic, fatuous.
n. Dotard, feeble person.
Inputed by Fidel
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Foolish, idiotic, fatuous
ANT:Shrewd, sagacious, clever
Checked by Dolores
Definition
adj. without strength either of body or mind: feeble: fatuous.—n. one destitute of strength either of mind or body.—n. Imbecil′ity state of being imbecile: weakness of body or mind.
Typist: Rodger
Examples
- He is greatly irritated by the irony of Socrates, but his noisy and imbecile rage only lays him more and more open to the thrusts of his assailant. Plato. The Republic.
- That I caught a view of myself in a mirror, looking perfectly imbecile and idiotic. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- If I was once to sit down under it, I should become imbecile. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- He binds the young to the old, the strong to the imbecile. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- By an examination of the ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- Woman imbecile and pig-like! Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- King George was far away in England, and sinking slowly towards an imbecile condition. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- He is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- I tell them that if I did restrain myself I should become imbecile. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- His being a clergyman would be only for gentility's sake, and I think there is nothing more contemptible than such imbecile gentility. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- However innocent he might be, he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the circumstances were very black against him. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- How dare you, she would ask herself--how dare you show your weakness and betray your imbecile anxieties? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Halliday hung motionless, an almost imbecile smile flickering palely on his face. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Her husband developed some hateful qualities; or shall we say that he contracted some loathsome disease, and became a leper or an imbecile? Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- You, imbeciles, where the lights are yonder, eating and drinking, and warming yourselves at fires! Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- A hospital for imbeciles! Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
Checked by Justin