incapacious, a.
(ɪnkəˈpeɪʃəs)
[f. L. incapāx, incapāci- + -ous: cf. It. incapace and capacious.]
Not capacious; the opposite of capacious.
1. Not of sufficient size to take in or contain something; not having space or room. b. Not able to contain much; not spacious or roomy; narrow, limited. (lit. and fig.)
| 1635 E. Pagitt Christianogr. App. 11 These my Letters are incapacious for mee to set downe at large the reasons. 1668 Howe Bless. Righteous (1825) 4 The momentary pleasure of narrow and incapacious sense. a 1715 Burnet (J.), Souls that are made little and incapacious cannot enlarge their thoughts to take in any great compass of times or things. |
2. Unable to comprehend or apprehend; not having mental capacity for something. Const. of; also formerly with inf. b. absol. Deficient in mental capacity or ability.
| 1617 Middleton & Rowley Fair Quarrel ii. ii, Can art be so dim-sighted, learned sir? I did not think her so incapacious. 1625 Bp. R. Montagu App. Cæsar ix. 80 Buzzing them into popular eares and capacities, incapacious of them. 1627–77 Feltham Resolves ii. lxiii. 293 Nature has doom'd him among the incapacious and silly. 1652 W. Hartley Infant-Baptism 10 [He] was incapacious to comprehend a rule or law. 1836 Landor Peric. & Asp. Wks. 1846 II. 404 The minds of them all..however incapacious, are carried to the utmost pitch of enthusiasm. |
Hence incaˈpaciousness, the quality of being incapacious, want of capacity.
| 1727 in Bailey vol. II. Hence in Johnson, Todd, etc. |