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/ˈɪmbəsəl/ /ˈɪmbəsaɪl/ Listen

noun

Imbecile n.

One destitute of strength; esp., one of feeble mind; sometimes used as a pejorative term.

(Psychology) A person with a degree of mental retardation between that of an idiot and a moron; in a former classification of mentally retarded person, it applied to a person with an adult mental age of from four to eith years, and an I.Q. of from 26 to 50.

adjective

Imbecile adj. Destitute of strength, whether of body or mind; feeble; impotent; esp., mentally wea; feeble-minded; as, hospitals for the imbecile and insane.

Synonyms: Weak; feeble; feeble-minded; idiotic.

verb

Imbecile v. t. To weaken; to make imbecile; as, to imbecile men's courage. (Obs.)

See images of 'Imbecile'

Etymology of 'Imbecile'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Imbecile" Quotes from Famous Books

... pretend to be enlightened are renegades to your country! He among you who talks that language neglects his own in such a way that he neither writes nor understands it, and how many have I not seen who pretended not to know a single word of it! But fortunately, you have an imbecile government! While Russia enslaves Poland by forcing the Russian language upon it, while Germany prohibits French in the conquered provinces, your government strives to preserve yours, and you in return, a remarkable people under an incredible government, ...

— The Reign of Greed - Complete English Version of 'El Filibusterismo' • Jose Rizal

... have to sink together since we can't swim together," he said at last, with a touch of reckless vexation, as he gazed at the naturally stupid and by that time imbecile face of ...

— The Battery and the Boiler - Adventures in Laying of Submarine Electric Cables • R.M. Ballantyne

... owl and the ape, there, they seem on very good terms. I wonder if they go to the room of Monsieur Kater! I think so; for one—the ghost in white, he is a little lame like the Englishman who goes always to the room of Monsieur.—Ah, bah! Imbecile! Away with ...

— The Eye of Dread • Payne Erskine

... during his confinement. Had his own wife seen him at that moment it is doubtful whether she would have recognized her lord. Could it be possible that that frail, tottering, wasted form, and that blanched, sunken-eyed, imbecile-looking countenance were all that were left of the once formidable Robert Gourlay? The sight was one which might have moved his bitterest enemy to tears. His clothing, a world too wide for so shrunken a tenant, hung sloppy and slovenly about him, and it was ...

— The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion, Volume 1 • John Charles Dent

... divulging the old incestuous ways of producing witches, by the intercourse of a mother with her son. Some sort of comedy perhaps was made out of the old materials, in the shape of a grotesque Semiramis or an imbecile Ninus. But the more serious game, which doubtless really took place, attests the existence of great profligacy in the upper walks of society: it took the form of a most hateful and ...

— La Sorciere: The Witch of the Middle Ages • Jules Michelet

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