#158. Impotence.-- N. impotence; inability, disability; disablement, impuissance, imbecility; incapacity, incapability; inaptitude, ineptitude, incompetence, unproductivity[obs]; indocility[obs]; invalidity, disqualification; inefficiency, wastefulness.
telum imbelle[Lat], brutum fulmen[Lat], blank, blank cartridge, flash in the pan, vox et proeterea nihil[Lat], dead letter, bit of waste paper, dummy; paper tiger; Quaker gun.
inefficacy &c. (inutility) 645[obs]; failure &c. 732.
helplessness &c. adj.; prostration, paralysis, palsy, apoplexy, syncope, sideration|, deliquium|[Lat], collapse, exhaustion, softening of the brain, inanition; emasculation, orchiotomy [Med], orchotomy[Med].
cripple, old woman, muff, powder puff, creampuff, pussycat, wimp, mollycoddle; eunuch.
V. be impotent &c. adj.; not have a leg to stand on.
vouloir rompre l'anguille au genou [French], vouloir prendre la lune avec les dents [French].
collapse, faint, swoon, fall into a swoon, drop; go by the board, go by the wayside; go up in smoke, end in smoke &c. (fail) 732.
render powerless &c. adj.; deprive of power; disable, disenable[obs]; disarm, incapacitate, disqualify, unfit, invalidate, deaden, cramp, tie the hands; double up, prostrate, paralyze, muzzle, cripple, becripple[obs], maim, lame, hamstring, draw the teeth of; throttle, strangle, garrotte, garrote; ratten[obs], silence, sprain, clip the wings of, put hors de combat[Fr], spike the guns; take the wind out of one's sails, scotch the snake, put a spoke in one's wheel; break the neck, break the back; unhinge, unfit; put out of gear.
unman, unnerve, enervate; emasculate, castrate, geld, alter, neuter, sterilize, fix.
shatter, exhaust, weaken &c. 160.
Adj. powerless, impotent, unable, incapable, incompetent; inefficient, ineffective; inept; unfit, unfitted; unqualified, disqualified; unendowed; inapt, unapt; crippled, disabled &c. v.; armless[obs].
harmless, unarmed, weaponless, defenseless, sine ictu[Lat], unfortified, indefensible, vincible, pregnable, untenable.
paralytic, paralyzed; palsied, imbecile; nerveless, sinewless[obs], marrowless[obs], pithless[obs], lustless[obs]; 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 &c. (in difficulty) 704; helpless, unfriended[obs], fatherless; without a leg to stand on, hors de combat[Fr], laid on the shelf.
null and void, nugatory, inoperative, good for nothing; ineffectual &c. (failing) 732; inadequate &c. 640; inefficacious &c. (useless) 645.
Phr. der kranke Mann[Ger]; "desirous still but impotent to rise" [Shenstone]; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.