impotent, a. (n.)
(ˈɪmpətənt)
Also 5 in-.
[a. F. impotent (14th c.) = It., Sp. impotente, ad. L. impotent-em powerless; usually, lacking self-restraint, f. im- (im-2) + potens, potent- potent.]
1. Having no power or ability to accomplish anything; powerless, helpless; ineffective.
| 1444 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 219, I sauh a krevys, with his klawes longe, Pursewe a snayl, poore and impotent. 1535 Coverdale Neh. iv. 2 Saneballat..saide..What do the impotent Iewes? 1568 in H. Campbell Love-Lett. Mary Q. Scots App. (1824) 11 When any of the persons of the said councell shall depart, or become impotent to serve. 1671 Milton P.R. ii. 433 Yet Wealth without these three is impotent To gain dominion or to keep it gain'd. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. xliii. (1869) II. 610 The works of man are impotent against the assaults of nature. 1860 Motley Netherl. (1868) I. ii. 25 The impotent monarch who occupied the French throne. 1896 Duke of Argyll Philos. Belief 39 The finest microscopes..are impotent to detect the molecular and atomic constitution of any form of matter. |
2. Physically weak; without bodily strength; unable to use one's limbs; helpless, decrepit.
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 383 And also for my daies olde That I am feble and impotent. c 1450 Lydg. Secrees 482 He was feble and Oold, And inpotent. 1538 Starkey Engl. i. i. 3 He ys by syknes or age impotent and not of powar to helpe hym selfe. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 184 Those onely who are impotent in their limes. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 27 ¶2 The Fellow with broken Limbs justly deserves your Alms for his impotent Condition. 1853 C. Brontë Villette iv, A rheumatic cripple, impotent hand and foot. |
| fig. 1604 Shakes. Oth. ii. i. 162 Oh most lame and impotent conclusion. 1871 Freeman Hist. Ess. (1872) 20 But he stops short in a most lame and impotent way. |
b. Wholly lacking in sexual power; incapable of reproduction.
| 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 7 Here it is a common practise to bewitch them: made thereby impotent with their wives, untill the charme be burnt. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 148 Eight or ten lustfull women, by the law subjected to one (and he perhaps an impotent man). 1676 Dryden Aurengz. Ded. a j b, The Impotent Lover in Petronius. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. ix. (1873) 250 Whole groups of animals and plants are rendered impotent by the same unnatural conditions. |
† 3. Not master of oneself; unable to restrain oneself; unrestrained, headlong, passionate. Also with
of.
Obs. [So L.
impotens.]
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. v. xii. 1 O sacred hunger of ambitious mindes, And impotent desire of men to raine! 1639 Massinger Unnat. Combat iii. ii, An impotent lover Of women for a flash, but, his fires quenched, Hating as deadly. 1670 Dryden 1st Pt. Conq. Granada v. i, Rash Men, like you, and impotent of Will, Give Chance no time to turn, but urge her still. 1715–20 Pope Iliad iv. 33 But Juno, impotent of passion, broke Her sullen silence. |
B. n. An impotent person.
| 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 2268 And brought to the shryne this wretched impotent. 1596 Edw. III, iii. iii, Whom should they follow, aged impotent, But he that is their true-born sovereign? 1662 Petty Taxes 4 The maintenance..of impotents of all sorts. 1685 ― Last Will p. xi, As for impotents by the hand of God, the publick ought to maintain them. 1833 Coleridge Lett. (1895) 768 A similar institution might exist for a higher class of will-maniacs or impotents. |