incontinence
(ɪnˈkɒntɪnəns)
Also 4–6 incontynence.
[a. F. incontinence (12th c.) or ad. L. incontinēntia, n. of quality f. incontinēnt-em: see in-3 and continent a.]
1. Want of continence or self-restraint; inability to contain or retain: a. With reference to the bodily appetites, esp. the sexual passion: Unchastity.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Cor. vii. 5 Eft turne ȝe aȝen in to the same thing, lest Sathanas tempte ȝou for ȝoure incontynence. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xiv. 161 Often tyme..the gode Dyamande lesethe his vertue, be synne and for Incontynence of him that berethe it. 1533 More Apol. ix. Wks. 866/1, I doe not allowe, but obhorre incontinence in sacred professed persones. 1624 Massinger Renegado iv. ii, Any virgin..convicted of corporal looseness and incontinence. 1784 Cowper Task i. 699 Such London is, by taste and wealth proclaim'd The fairest capital of all the world, By riot and incontinence the worst. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets vi. 169 Handsome youths are admonished by Pindar to beware of lawlessness and shun incontinence. |
b. In general sense. (Const. of.)
| 1836 Hor. Smith Tin Trump. (1876) 342 He who labours under an incontinence of speech, seldom gets the better of his complaint. 1850 L. Hunt Autobiog. I. v. 202 His laughter would follow his tears with a happy incontinence. 1858–65 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xi. iii, [They] do not waste themselves by incontinence of tongue. 1881 Sir T. Martin Horace, Odes i. xviii, Transparent as crystal, that shows In its babbling incontinence all that it knows. |
2. Path. Inability to retain a natural evacuation, esp. incontinence of urine (= L. incontinentia urinæ, in Pliny.)
| 1754–64 Smellie Midwif. I. 162 The woman commonly labours under an incontinence of urine. 1874 Van Buren Dis. Genit. Org. 229 Incontinence, like retention, is a symptom, and not a disease. |