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incapacity|ɪnkəˈpæsɪtɪ|
[ad. F. incapacité (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = It. incapacità (Florio, 1598): see in-3 and capacity.]
1. Want of capacity; inability, powerlessness; incompetence, natural disqualification; incapability. Also with an and pl., an instance of this.
1611Florio, Incapacita, incapacity, vncapablenesse. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. i. 107 Wee doe not conceive..any such intolerable incapacity in the organs of divers other Quadrupedes. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §141 The Lord Conway..for age and incapacity, was at last removed from the Secretary's office. 1712Steele Spect. No. 456 ⁋2 The Incapacity of an Infant or a Lunatick. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xxi. (1869) I. 589 His incapacity and ignorance were equal to his presumption. 1819Shelley Cenci ii. ii, The eldest son of a rich nobleman Is heir to all his incapacities. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life x. v. (1875) 391 Cerebral fatigue leading to temporary incapacity.
b. Const. of, for, or inf.: cf. incapable.
a1665J. Goodwin Filled w. the Spirit (1867) 27 An utter incapacity of receiving the Spirit. 1681Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 131 The incapacity of the emperor to hinder it. 1736Butler Anal. i. iii. 100 Through incapacity of knowing better, and doing better for themselves. 1823Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Old Margate Hoy, The incapacity of actual objects for satisfying our preconceptions of them. 1856Olmstead Slave States 130 Feeling their own incapacity to take care of themselves.
c. Inability to take, receive, or deal with in some way. Const. of, for.
a1655Vines Lord's Supp. (1677) 165 He brings..a church into an incapacity of sacraments. 1665Glanvill Def. Vain Dogm. p. v, I fell into a violent feavour, which long detain'd me in an incapacity for matter of such a nature. 1896Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 411 Digestive incapacity for starch and milky food.
2. Legal disqualification, disability: with an and pl., an instance of this, a disqualification or disability.
1648Art. Peace c. 8 That all Incapacities imposed upon the Natives of this Kingdom..be taken away by Act to be passed in the said Parliament. 168.in Somers Tracts I. 272 Persons of great Consideration and Credit..lying at present under an Incapacity. 1767Blackstone Comm. II. 257 There is one more incapacity of taking by descent. 1850Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) I. iv. 189 The laws..inflicted upon him civil incapacity to the fullest extent. |