debility
/dɪˈbɪlɪti
/noun (plural debilities) [mass noun]
Physical weakness, especially as a result of illness: most of the cases presented with general debility, muscle weakness, and weight loss...
- John Andrews, Minister of Finance, was born in the same year as Craig and, despite clear signs of physical debility, was to be the Prime Minister's successor.
- Age, debility, poverty and illness were often factors that led to a favorable decision.
- The symptoms were of severe general debility and vitamin deficiency.
Synonyms
frailty, weakness, feebleness, enfeeblement, enervation, devitalization, lack of energy, lack of vitality, lassitude, exhaustion, weariness, tiredness, overtiredness, fatigue, prostration;
incapacity, impairment, indisposition, infirmity, illness, sickness, sickliness, decrepitude, malaise
informal weediness
Medicine asthenia
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French debilite, from Latin debilitas, from debilis 'weak'.
Rhymes
- wall cress
- walled garden
- Wallenberg, Raoul
- Waller, Fats
- wallet
- wall eye
- walleye
- wall-eyed
- wallflower
- wall game
- wall hanging
- wall-hung
- walling
- Wallingford
- wallink
- Wallis and Futuna Islands
- Wallis, Sir Barnes Neville
- wall knot
- wall-less
- wall lizard
- wall-mounted
- Wall of Death
- wall of honor
- Walloon
- wallop