| 释义 |
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.
1444Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 219, I sauh a krevys, with his klawes longe, Pursewe a snayl, poore and impotent. 1535Coverdale Neh. iv. 2 Saneballat..saide..What do the impotent Iewes? 1568in 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. 1671Milton P.R. ii. 433 Yet Wealth without these three is impotent To gain dominion or to keep it gain'd. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. xliii. (1869) II. 610 The works of man are impotent against the assaults of nature. 1860Motley Netherl. (1868) I. ii. 25 The impotent monarch who occupied the French throne. 1896Duke 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.
1390Gower Conf. III. 383 And also for my daies olde That I am feble and impotent. c1450Lydg. Secrees 482 He was feble and Oold, And inpotent. 1538Starkey Engl. i. i. 3 He ys by syknes or age impotent and not of powar to helpe hym selfe. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 184 Those onely who are impotent in their limes. 1709Steele Tatler No. 27 ⁋2 The Fellow with broken Limbs justly deserves your Alms for his impotent Condition. 1853C. Brontë Villette iv, A rheumatic cripple, impotent hand and foot.
fig.1604Shakes. Oth. ii. i. 162 Oh most lame and impotent conclusion. 1871Freeman Hist. Ess. (1872) 20 But he stops short in a most lame and impotent way.
b. Wholly lacking in sexual power; incapable of reproduction.
1615G. Sandys Trav. 7 Here it is a common practise to bewitch them: made thereby impotent with their wives, untill the charme be burnt. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 148 Eight or ten lustfull women, by the law subjected to one (and he perhaps an impotent man). 1676Dryden Aurengz. Ded. a j b, The Impotent Lover in Petronius. 1859Darwin 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.]
1596Spenser F.Q. v. xii. 1 O sacred hunger of ambitious mindes, And impotent desire of men to raine! 1639Massinger Unnat. Combat iii. ii, An impotent lover Of women for a flash, but, his fires quenched, Hating as deadly. 1670Dryden 1st Pt. Conq. Granada v. i, Rash Men, like you, and impotent of Will, Give Chance no time to turn, but urge her still. 1715–20Pope Iliad iv. 33 But Juno, impotent of passion, broke Her sullen silence.
B. n. An impotent person.
1513Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 2268 And brought to the shryne this wretched impotent. 1596Edw. III, iii. iii, Whom should they follow, aged impotent, But he that is their true-born sovereign? 1662Petty 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. 1833Coleridge Lett. (1895) 768 A similar institution might exist for a higher class of will-maniacs or impotents. |