Impotence

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Impotence \Im"po*tence\, Impotency \Im"po*ten*cy\, n. [L.
     impotenia inability, poverty, lack of moderation. See
     {Impotent}.]
     1. The quality or condition of being impotent; lack of
        strength or power, animal, intellectual, or moral;
        weakness; feebleness; inability; imbecility.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              Some were poor by impotency of nature; as young
              fatherless children, old decrepit persons, idiots,
              and cripples.                         --Hayward.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              O, impotence of mind in body strong!  --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Lack of self-restraint or self-control. [R.] --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Law & Med.) Lack of procreative power; inability to
        copulate, or beget children; also, sometimes, sterility;
        barrenness; specifically, in males: the inability to
        achieve or sustain a penile erection; erectile
        dysfunction.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  impotence
       n 1: the quality of lacking strength or power; being weak and
            feeble [syn: {powerlessness}, {impotency}] [ant: {power},
             {power}]
       2: an inability (usually of a male) to copulate [syn: {impotency}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  132 Moby Thesaurus words for "impotence":
     absurdity, adynamia, aimlessness, anemia, aridity, atony,
     barrenness, birth control, blah feeling, bloodlessness,
     bootlessness, cachexia, cachexy, carelessness, carnality, coldness,
     contraception, cowardice, dearth, debilitation, debility, dry womb,
     dryness, dullness, easiness, easygoingness, emptiness, enervation,
     etiolation, faintness, family planning, famine, fatigue, fatuity,
     fecklessness, feebleness, flabbiness, flaccidity, flesh,
     fleshliness, forcelessness, frailty, frigidity, fruitlessness,
     futility, helplessness, hollowness, impotency, imprecision,
     inadequacy, inanity, incompetence, indifference, ineffectiveness,
     ineffectuality, ineffectualness, inefficaciousness, inefficacy,
     ineptness, infecundity, infertility, lack of force,
     lack of influence, lack of magnetism, lack of personality,
     lack of power, languishment, languor, lassitude, laxity, laxness,
     leniency, libido, listlessness, looseness, loosening, love,
     lovemaking, marriage, meaninglessness, negligence, no say,
     nugacity, otiosity, overindulgence, overpermissiveness,
     permissiveness, planned parenthood, pointlessness, potency,
     powerlessness, profitlessness, prostration, purposelessness,
     rat race, relaxation, relaxedness, remissness, sensuality,
     sex drive, sexiness, sexual instinct, sexual urge, sexualism,
     sexuality, slackness, sloppiness, sluggishness, softness,
     sterileness, sterility, strengthlessness, the absurd, triviality,
     unauthoritativeness, unfertileness, unfruitfulness,
     uninfluentiality, unpersuasiveness, unproductiveness,
     unprofitability, unprofitableness, unrestraint, valuelessness,
     vanity, vicious circle, voluptuousness, weakliness, weakness,
     weariness, withered loins, worthlessness
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  IMPOTENCE, med. jur. The incapacity for copulation or propagating the 
  species. It has also been used synonymously with sterility. 
       2. Impotence may be considered as incurable, curable, accidental or 
  temporary. Absolute or incurable impotence, is that for which there is no 
  known relief, principally originating in some malformation or defect of the 
  genital organs. Where this defect existed at the time of the marriage, and 
  was incurable, by the ecclesiastical law and the law of several of the 
  American states, the marriage may be declared void ab initio. Com. Dig. 
  Baron and Feme, C 3; Bac. Ab. Marriage, &c., E 3; 1 Bl. Com. 440; Beck's 
  Med. Jur. 67; Code, lib. 5, t. 17, l. 10; Poyn. on Marr. and Div. ch. 8; 5 
  Paige, 554; Merl. Rep. mot Impuissance. But it seems the party naturally 
  impotent cannot allege that fact for the purpose of obtaining a divorce. 3 
  Phillim. R. 147; S. C. 1 Eng. Eccl. R. 384. See 3 Phillim. R. 325; S. C. 1 
  Eng. Eccl. R. 408; 1 Chit. Med. Jur. 877; 1 Par. & Fonb. 172, 173. note d; 
  Ryan's Med. Jur. 95. to 111; 1 Bl. Com. 440; 2 Phillim. R. 10; 1 Hagg. R. 
  725. See, as to the signs of impotence, 1 Briand, Med. Leg. c. 2, art. 2, 
  Sec. 2, n. 1; Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales, art. Impuissance; and, 
  generally, Trebuchet, Jur. de la. Med. 100, 101, 102; 1 State Tr. 315; 8 
  State Tr. App. No. 1, p. 23; 3 Phillm. R. 147; 1 Hagg. Eccl. R. 523; Fodere, 
  Med. Leg. Sec. 237.