Roget's Thesaurus

#158. Impotence

Nouns

impotence; inability, disability; disablement, 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 etc. (inutility) 645; failure etc. 732. helplessness etc. 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.

Verbs

be impotent etc. 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 etc. (fail) 732. render powerless etc. 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 etc. 160.

Adjectives

powerless, impotent, unable, incapable, incompetent; inefficient, ineffective; inept; unfit, unfitted; unqualified, disqualified; unendowed; inapt, unapt; crippled, disabled etc. 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 etc. (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 etc. (failing) 732; inadequate etc. 640; inefficacious etc. (useless) 645.

Phrases

der kranke Mann [G.]; desirous still but impotent to rise [Shenstone]; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.