impotent

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: im=po=tent

CIDE DICTIONARY

impotent, a. [F. impotent, L. impotens, -entis; pref. im- not + potens potent, powerful. See Potent.].

•  Not potent; wanting power, strength. or vigor. whether physical, intellectual, or moral; deficient in capacity; destitute of force; weak; feeble; infirm.  [1913 Webster]

  "There sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent inhis feet."  [1913 Webster]

  "O most lame and impotent conclusion!"  [1913 Webster]

  "Not slow to hear,
  Nor impotent to save."  [1913 Webster]
•  Wanting the power of self-restraint; incontrolled; ungovernable; violent.  [1913 Webster]

  "Impotent of tongue, her silence broke."  [1913 Webster]
•  Wanting the power of procreation; unable to copulate; also, sometimes, sterile; barren;  [1913 Webster]

impotent, n. 

 One who is impotent.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

impotent, adj.
1 a powerless; lacking all strength. b helpless, decrepit.
2 (esp. of a male) unable, esp. for a prolonged period, to achieve a sexual erection or orgasm.

Derivative

impotence n. impotency n. impotently adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. L impotens (as IN-(1), POTENT(1))

THESAURUS

impotent

acarpous, aimless, anemic, arid, asexual, asthenic, barren, blank cartridge, bloodless, careless, castrated, castrato, celibate, chicken, childless, cold, cowardly, crippled, debilitated, desert, desolate, disabled, drained, dried-up, drooping, droopy, dry, dud, dull, easy, easygoing, effete, emasculate, emasculated, enervated, enfeebled, etiolated, eunuch, eunuchized, exhausted, faint, faintish, fallow, featherweight, feckless, feeble, flabby, flaccid, floppy, forceless, frail, frigid, fruitless, frustrated, gaunt, gelded, gelding, gone, gutless, helpless, imbecile, imprecise, inadequate, incompetent, indifferent, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, inept, infecund, infertile, infirm, invalid, invertebrate, issueless, jejune, languid, languorous, lax, leached, lenient, lightweight, limber, limp, listless, loose, lustless, marrowless, meaningless, menopausal, negligent, nerveless, neuter, neutral, no go, no-account, nonfertile, nonproducing, nonproductive, nonprolific, of no account, of no use, overindulgent, overpermissive, permissive, pithless, pointless, pooped, powerless, purposeless, relaxed, remiss, rubbery, sapless, sexless, sine prole, sinewless, slack, slipshod, sloppy, soft, spineless, sterile, strengthless, sucked dry, superfluous, teemless, unauthoritative, unavailing, uncultivated, unfertile, unfruitful, unhardened, unnerved, unplowed, unproductive, unprolific, unrestrained, unsexed, unsexual, unsown, unstrung, untilled, useless, virgin, waste, wasted, weak, weakling, weakly, without any weight, without issue

ROGET THESAURUS

impotent

Impotence

N impotence, inability, disability, disablement, impuissance, imbecility, incapacity, incapability, inaptitude, ineptitude, incompetence, unproductivity, indocility, invalidity, disqualification, inefficiency, wastefulness, telum imbelle, brutum fulmen, blank, blank cartridge, flash in the pan, vox et proeterea nihil, dead letter, bit of waste paper, dummy, paper tiger, Quaker gun, inefficacy, failure, helplessness, prostration, paralysis, palsy, apoplexy, syncope, sideration, deliquium, collapse, exhaustion, softening of the brain, inanition, emasculation, orchiotomy, orchotomy, cripple, old woman, muff, powder puff, creampuff, pussycat, wimp, mollycoddle, eunuch, powerless, impotent, unable, incapable, incompetent, inefficient, ineffective, inept, unfit, unfitted, unqualified, disqualified, unendowed, inapt, unapt, crippled, disabled, armless, harmless, unarmed, weaponless, defenseless, sine ictu, unfortified, indefensible, vincible, pregnable, untenable, paralytic, paralyzed, palsied, imbecile, nerveless, sinewless, marrowless, pithless, lustless, emasculate, disjointed, out of joint, out of gear, unnerved, unhinged, water-logged, on one's beam ends, rudderless, laid on one's back, done up, dead beat, exhausted, shattered, demoralized, graveled, helpless, unfriended, fatherless, without a leg to stand on, hors de combat, laid on the shelf, null and void, nugatory, inoperative, good for nothing, ineffectual, inadequate, inefficacious, der kranke Mann, desirous still but impotent to rise, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Weakness

N weakness, debility, atony, relaxation, languor, enervation, impotence, infirmity, effeminacy, feminality, fragility, flaccidity, inactivity, anaemia, bloodlessness, deficiency of blood, poverty of blood, declension of strength, loss of strength, failure of strength, delicacy, invalidation, decrepitude, asthenia, adynamy, cachexy, cachexia, sprain, strain, reed, thread, rope of sand, house of cards, softling, weakling, infant, youth, weak, feeble, debile, impotent, relaxed, unnerved sapless, strengthless, powerless, weakly, unstrung, flaccid, adynamic, asthenic, nervous, soft, effeminate, feminate, womanly, frail, fragile, shattery, flimsy, unsubstantial, insubstantial, gimcrack, gingerbread, rickety, creaky, creaking, cranky, craichy, drooping, tottering, broken, lame, withered, shattered, shaken, crazy, shaky, palsied, decrepit, languid, poor, infirm, faint, faintish, sickly, dull, slack, evanid, spent, short-winded, effete, weather-beaten, decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low, pulled down, the worse for wear, unstrengthened, unsupported, unaided, unassisted, aidless, defenseless, cantilevered (support), on its last legs, weak as a child, weak as a baby, weak as a chicken, weak as a cat, weak as a rat, weak as water, weak as water gruel, weak as gingerbread, weak as milk and water, colorless, non sum qualis eram.