handicap

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Sports & Games A race or contest in which contestants are given advantages or compensations to equalize the chances of winning.
2. n. Sports & Games Such an advantage or penalty.
3. n. A physical or mental disability. See Synonyms at disadvantage.
4. n. A hindrance.
5. v. Sports & Games To assign handicaps or a handicap to (a contestant).
6. v. To cause to be at a disadvantage; impede.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An old game at cards, not unlike loo.
2. n. In racing and athletics, an extra burden placed upon, or a special requirement made of, a superior competitor in favor of an inferior, in order to make their chances more equal. In a horse-race the handicap is usually an additional weight to be carried by the better horse; in a foot-race, jumping-match, etc., a shorter time, greater distance, or the like, for the superior contestant. The amount of the handicap is adjusted in accordance with the performance of the competitors in previous contests; and in horse-racing regard is had also to the age, sex, and height of the horses. The principle is applied in other contests of agility or skill: thus, in draughts, a superior player is handicapped if he plays against an unskilful or inexperienced player with eleven men to the latter's twelve.
3. n. A race in which the supposed superiority of certain competitors is counterbalanced by penalties of additional weight, distance, or time imposed on them, or the inferiority of others is compensated by a certain amount of time or distance granted them in starting; any contest or competition in which an allowance of time or distance or other advantage is given to an inferior competitor: as, the Newmarket handicap.
4. Noting a contest in which certain competitors are handicapped: as, a handicap race or game.
5. To impose, as upon a competitor in a race or other contest, some disadvantage, such as a penalty of additional weight or distance or an allowance of a start or other advantage to an opponent.
6. Figuratively, to place at a disadvantage by the imposition of any embarrassment, impediment, or disability: as, handicapped by age, by inexperience, etc.

Wiktionary

1. n. An allowance of a certain amount of time or distance in starting, granted in a race (or other contest of skill) to the competitor possessing disadvantages; or an additional weight or other hindrance imposed upon the one possessing advantages, in order to equalize, as much as possible, the chances of success.
2. n. The disadvantage itself, in particular physical or mental disadvantages of people.
3. n. A race, for horses or men, or any contest of agility, strength, or skill, in which there is an allowance of time, distance, weight, or other advantage, to equalize the chances of the competitors.
4. n. An old game at cards. - Pepys
5. v. To encumber with a handicap in any contest.
6. v. To place at disadvantage.
7. v. To estimate betting odds.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An allowance of a certain amount of time or distance in starting, granted in a race to the competitor possessing inferior advantages; or an additional weight or other hindrance imposed upon the one possessing superior advantages, in order to equalize, as much as possible, the chances of success.
2. n. A race, for horses or men, or any contest of agility, strength, or skill, in which there is an allowance of time, distance, weight, or other advantage, to equalize the chances of the competitors.
3. n. An old game at cards.
4. n. a physical or mental disability of the body which makes normal human activities more difficult or impossible.
5. n. any disadvantage that makes an activity more difficult or impossible.
6. v. To encumber with a handicap in any contest; hence, in general, to place at disadvantage.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. attempt to forecast the winner (especially in a horse race) and assign odds for or against a contestant
2. n. something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress
3. v. put at a disadvantage
4. n. advantage given to a competitor to equalize chances of winning
5. n. the condition of being unable to perform as a consequence of physical or mental unfitness
6. v. injure permanently