IMBECILE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Imbecile

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/ˈɪmbəsəl/ /ˈɪmbəsaɪl/ Listen

noun

Imbecile n.

One destitute of strength; esp., one of feeble mind; sometimes used as a pejorative term.

(Psychology) A person with a degree of mental retardation between that of an idiot and a moron; in a former classification of mentally retarded person, it applied to a person with an adult mental age of from four to eith years, and an I.Q. of from 26 to 50.

adjective

Imbecile adj. Destitute of strength, whether of body or mind; feeble; impotent; esp., mentally wea; feeble-minded; as, hospitals for the imbecile and insane.

Synonyms: Weak; feeble; feeble-minded; idiotic.

verb

Imbecile v. t. To weaken; to make imbecile; as, to imbecile men's courage. (Obs.)

See images of 'Imbecile'

Etymology of 'Imbecile'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Imbecile" Quotes from Famous Books

... not see by her face that the girl had friends in that corps? Didn't you notice how pleased she looked when we praised their bravery and how white her face came, when I said what their losses were. I tried to comfort her by making out that most of the missing might be only wounded, and then, imbecile that you are, you break in with your talk and as good as tell her that if they ain't all dead, they are likely to ...

— A Girl of the Commune • George Alfred Henty

... into the courtyard. Several men in bottle-green corduroys loitered there, and a tiny old woman shrivelled and imbecile, who ran to Anne the moment she appeared, holding her skirts high to her knees, skipping on one foot and ...

— Women of the Country • Gertrude Bone

... sea, in any archipelago, East or West, is a bad friend to the Republic. We may guide, protect, elevate them, and even teach them some day to stand alone; but if we ever invite them into our Senate and House, to help to rule us, we are the most imbecile of all ...

— Problems of Expansion - As Considered In Papers and Addresses • Whitelaw Reid

... you know, the assassin of the rue Norvins? Well, this imbecile has gone and hanged himself in ...

— Messengers of Evil - Being a Further Account of the Lures and Devices of Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre

... that she forgets, that she does not care. Only, it is better like this, because it could never be as before. I could not help her. I want nothing that she can give me, no not anything; I have my memories! I hear of her, from time to time; I hear what the world says of her, the imbecile world, and I smile. Do I not know best? I, who carried her in my arms, ...

— The Poems And Prose Of Ernest Dowson • Ernest Dowson et al

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