Impotent
['ɪmpət(ə)nt] or ['ɪmpətənt]
Definition
(adj.) lacking power or ability; 'Technology without morality is barbarous; morality without technology is impotent'- Freeman J.Dyson; 'felt impotent rage' .
(adj.) (of a male) unable to copulate .
Inputed by Franklin--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Not potent; wanting power, strength. or vigor. whether physical, intellectual, or moral; deficient in capacity; destitute of force; weak; feeble; infirm.
(a.) Wanting the power of self-restraint; incontrolled; ungovernable; violent.
(a.) Wanting the power of procreation; unable to copulate; also, sometimes, sterile; barren.
(n.) One who is imoitent.
Checker: Lucille
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Powerless, unable, incapable, incompetent, disabled, incapacitated, imbecile, weak, feeble, infirm, frail, inefficient.
Checker: Phyllis
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Weak, powerless, useless, feeble, helpless, nerveless, enfeebled
ANT:Strong, vigorous, powerful, virile
Checked by Brett
Definition
adj. powerless: without sexual power: wanting the power of self-restraint.—ns. Im′potence Im′potency.—adv. Im′potently.
Inputed by Brenda
Examples
- Leitner hated Loerke with an injured, writhing, impotent hatred, and Loerke treated Leitner with a fine-quivering contempt and sarcasm. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Must we continue to muddle along in the old ruts, gazing rapturously at an impotent ideal, until the works of the scientists are matured? Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- If I sit here thinking of him, snarls the old man, holding up his impotent ten fingers, I want to strangle him now. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Their force has long passed away--Age has no pleasures, wrinkles have no influence, revenge itself dies away in impotent curses. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- He mocked the youth, with an acid ridicule, that made Leitner red in the face and impotent with resentment. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- It bit and clawed and scratched in impotent fury. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- It is a similar case, where any real quality is, by accidental circumstances, rendered impotent, and is deprived of its natural influence on society. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Envy and impotent desires are their prevailing passions. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- Let him writhe, in impotent malice, as we pen the words, _We will be there_. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Not so much pain now; but I am hopelessly weak, and the state of my mind is inexpressible--dark, barren, impotent. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- First Born, I cried, turning to those who stood within the chamber, you have seen to-day the impotency of Issus--the gods are impotent. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- As against it, or as compared with it, the conscious ideas and preference of individuals are impotent. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- The poverty which reduces an Irish girl to rags is impotent to rob the English girl of the neat wardrobe she knows necessary to her self-respect. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Nothing, indeed, thought I, as I struggled to repress a sob, and hastily wiped away some tears, the impotent evidences of my anguish. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- There he hung helpless for a moment, glaring up at me in impotent rage. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- They were powerless as a rotten bulrush to protect me--impotent as idiot babblings to restrain him! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- But, in the detail which he gave you of them, he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured, wasting in impotent passions. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- That man, properly handled, must ever remain impotent. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- It proved to her that she had no heart to be touched: it reminded her where she was impotent and dead. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- A merely impotent being has to be carried, forever, by others. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
Inputed by Brenda