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debility. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
debility, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
debility in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
debility you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English debylite, from Old French debilité (French débilité), from Latin dēbilitās (“weakness”), from dēbilis (“weak”), from dē- + habilis (“able”).
Pronunciation
Noun
debility (countable and uncountable, plural debilities)
- A state of physical or mental weakness.
1818, [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, →OCLC:As I was in a state of extreme debility, I resolved to sail directly towards the town, as a place where I could most easily procure nourishment.
[…]
I was ready to sink from fatigue and hunger, but being surrounded by a crowd, I thought it politic to rouse all my strength, that no physical debility might be construed into apprehension or conscious guilt.
1886, Robert Louis Stephenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:I was struck besides with the shocking expression of his face, with his remarkable combination of great muscular activity and great apparent debility of constitution
Translations
Further reading
- “debility”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “debility”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.