Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Inadequate strength or ability; lack of capacity.
  • noun A defect or handicap; a disability.
  • noun Law Disqualification from taking part in a legal proceeding because of mental or physical disability or because of lack of legal power or authority.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Lack of capacity; lack of ability or qualification; inability; incapability; incompetency.
  • noun In law, the lack of legal qualification; that condition of a person which forbids a given act on his part, and makes the act legally inefficacious even if he does it: as, infancy constitutes an incapacity to contract; a trust creates in the trustee an incapacity to buy the trust property for himself at his own sale.

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

  • noun Lack of capacity; lack of physical or intellectual power; inability.
  • noun (Law) Lack of legal ability or competency to do, give, transmit, or receive something; inability; disqualification

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

  • noun The lack of a capacity; an inability

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

  • noun lack of physical or natural qualifications
  • noun lack of intellectual power

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Negative in- + capacity

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Examples

  • The Government will explore using a new funding mechanism to reward private and voluntary sector specialist providers for investing in helping long-term incapacity benefits claimants to return to work, in two pilot areas, for example Greater Manchester and Birmingham.

    Archive 2008-03-01 Thatsnews 2008

  • The Government is also looking at the way it contracts with specialist providers to support existing long-term incapacity benefits claimants.

    Archive 2008-03-01 Thatsnews 2008

  • He receives £331. 28 a month in incapacity benefit and £183. 30 a month in disability living allowance because of a leg injury he suffered in his teens.

    Blowing up the hand that feeds you « BuzzMachine 2005

  • That's why estate planning must cover long-term incapacity, including out-of-pocket expenses for assisted living, nursing homes (which, contrary to popular belief, Medicare does not cover long term), in-home care and other expenses related to aging.

    A Guide for Caregivers 2007

  • If that problem is not solved the fault will lie either in incapacity and want of vision in statesmen, or with the ignorance and indifference of that public opinion which gives policy its motive power.

    Sharing the Responsibilities of Empire 1944

  • The government is already preparing to reassess the circumstances of 1.5 million people signed off work on long-term incapacity benefits to see if they are fit enough to return to employment.

    Reuters: Top News 2011

  • The man has the moral fibre of a rattlesnake - get him out while there is still something left of this, once proud, country Margaret Thatcher helped start the culture of long term incapacity benefits when she said that miners who lost their jobs could go on benefits.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2011

  • The government is already preparing to reassess the circumstances of 1.5 million people signed off work on long-term incapacity benefits to see if they are fit enough to return to employment.

    Reuters: Top News 2011

  • So, that means the many millions, at the last estimate 10.61 million, of working age who are unemployed or classed as economically inactive are likely to vote for him to retain their social handouts, allowances, council tax paid, utility bills paid, unemployment or long-term incapacity benefits paid, child allowances, child tax credits and other handouts.

    Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2010

  • Individuals on long term incapacity benefit because of mental health problems could be identified by their GPs three years before they stop working, finds a research paper published on British Medical Journal.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

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