Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Powerless; impotent; feeble.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Weak; impotent; feeble.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective weak; impotent; feeble

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective lacking physical strength or vigor

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French, from prefix im- not + puissant. See puissant.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word impuissant.

Examples

  • Now, ask yourself: Just how torn up do you think BO was when his direct competition was axed over his pusillanimous and impuissant reluctance to engage in the "war on terror"?

    Lionel: Olbermann Versus O'Reilly: It's a Shoot 2009

  • His fans couldn't care less that Sean welshed on a bet, for charity, no less, and is impuissant.

    Lionel: Stop Repeating and Retelling What Rush Says! 2009

  • Je dis depuis longtemps que les Quebecois veulent une option qui n'est pas la separation, qui n'est pas la corruption ou qui n'est pas un parti impuissant ou un parti du status quo et du centrisme.

    Archive 2006-03-01 Ed Hollett 2006

  • Je dis depuis longtemps que les Quebecois veulent une option qui n'est pas la separation, qui n'est pas la corruption ou qui n'est pas un parti impuissant ou un parti du status quo et du centrisme.

    March 2006 Ed Hollett 2006

  • C'est vrai que je me sentais impuissant devant le drame qui se jouait à des milliers de kilomètres de chez moi, mais, au moins, je pouvais parler, témoigner.

    Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas Marie Lebert

  • 'Lutteur impuissant et fatigué,' says M. Hamel, the most thoroughgoing defender of Robespierre, upon this, 'il va se retirer, moralement du moins.'

    Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 1 of 3) Essay 1: Robespierre John Morley 1880

  • All immediately forget that his idiocy is only assumed; and what woman ever ceases from deploring the unhappy lot of the future wife of their impuissant Prince!

    Vivian Grey Benjamin Disraeli 1842

  • (And don't go arguing that there may be some sort of connection between being immunodeficient and suffering from "a complex of wasting diseases"; we are in the fierce realms of the Dionysian, and you should've checked your impuissant Apollonian "logic" at the door.)

    Bouphonia 2009

  • But we need far clearer descriptions of what is meant by "poor," for Scripture recognizes more than one kind: the indigent poor who may lack the basic commodities of food and shelter, to the impuissant poor who lack political clout and social esteem and are victims of prejudice, to the humble poor who are spiritually meek and dependent upon God.

    Common Grounds Online 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.