impuissance, imbecility; incapacity, incapability; inaptitude,
ineptitude, incompetence, unproductivity†; indocility†; invalidity,
disqualification; inefficiency, wastefulness.
telum imbelle [Lat.], brutum fulmen [Lat.], blank, blank
cartridge, flash in the pan, vox et proeterea nihil [Lat.], dead
letter, bit of waste paper, dummy; paper tiger; Quaker gun.
inefficacy &c (inutility) 645 [Obs.]; failure &c 732.
helplessness &c adj.; prostration, paralysis, palsy, apoplexy,
syncope, sideration†, deliquium [Lat.], collapse, exhaustion, softening
of the brain, inanition; emasculation, orchiotomy [Med.], orchotomy
[Med.].
cripple, old woman, muff, powder puff, creampuff, pussycat, wimp,
mollycoddle; eunuch.
V. be impotent &c adj.; not have a leg to stand on.
vouloir rompre l'anguille au genou [Fr.], vouloir prendre la lune
avec les dents [Fr.].
collapse, faint, swoon, fall into a swoon, drop; go by the board,
go by the wayside; go up in smoke, end in smoke &c (fail) 732.
render powerless &c adj.; deprive of power; disable, disenable†;
disarm, incapacitate, disqualify, unfit, invalidate, deaden, cramp, tie
the hands; double up, prostrate, paralyze, muzzle, cripple, becripple†,
maim, lame, hamstring, draw the teeth of; throttle, strangle, garrotte,
garrote; ratten†, silence, sprain, clip the wings of, put hors de combat
[Fr.], spike the guns; take the wind out of one's sails, scotch the
snake, put a spoke in one's wheel; break the neck, break the back;
unhinge, unfit; put out of gear.
unman, unnerve, enervate; emasculate, castrate, geld, alter,
neuter, sterilize, fix.
shatter, exhaust, weaken &c 160.
Adj. powerless, impotent, unable, incapable, incompetent; inefficient,
ineffective; inept; unfit, unfitted; unqualified, disqualified;
unendowed; inapt, unapt; crippled, disabled &c v.; armless†.
harmless, unarmed, weaponless, defenseless, sine ictu [Lat.],
unfortified, indefensible, vincible, pregnable, untenable.
paralytic, paralyzed; palsied, imbecile; nerveless, sinewless†,
marrowless†, pithless†, lustless†; emasculate, disjointed; out of joint,
out of gear; unnerved, unhinged; water-logged, on one's beam ends,
rudderless; laid on one's back; done up, dead beat, exhausted,
shattered, demoralized; graveled &c (in difficulty) 704; helpless,
unfriended†, fatherless; without a leg to stand on, hors de combat
[Fr.], laid on the shelf.
null and void, nugatory, inoperative, good for nothing;
ineffectual &c (failing) 732; inadequate &c 640; inefficacious &c
(useless) 645.
Phr. der kranke Mann [G.]; desirous still but impotent to rise
[Shenstone]; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.