Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person who is considered foolish or stupid.
- noun A person of moderate to severe mental retardation having a mental age of from three to seven years and generally being capable of some degree of communication and performance of simple tasks under supervision. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make imbecile; weaken.
- To embezzle.
- Without physical strength; feeble; impotent; helpless.
- Mentally feeble: fatuous; having the mental faculties undeveloped or greatly impaired. See
imbecility . - Marked by mental feebleness or incapacity; indicating weakness of mind; inane; stupid: as, imbecile efforts; an imbecile speech.
- Synonyms and Foolish, driveling, idiotic. See
debility . - noun One who is imbecile.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Destitute of strength, whether of body or mind; feeble; impotent; esp., mentally wea; feeble-minded.
- noun One destitute of strength; esp., one of feeble mind; -- sometimes used as a pejorative term.
- noun (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.
- transitive verb obsolete To weaken; to make imbecile.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete A
person with limitedmental capacity who can performtasks andthink only like a youngchild , in medical circles meaning a person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal five to seven-year-old child. - noun pejorative A
fool , anidiot .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person of subnormal intelligence
- adjective having a mental age of three to seven years
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Chagrined as he was at what he termed his imbecile stupidity in not knowing his own heart all these past months, and convinced, as he also was, that Alice and Calderwell cared for each other, he could see no way for him but to play the part of a man of kindliness and honor, leaving a clear field for his preferred rival, and bringing no shadow of regret to mar the happiness of the girl he loved.
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Chagrined as he was at what he termed his imbecile stupidity in not knowing his own heart all these past months, and convinced, as he also was, that Alice and Calderwell cared for each other, he could see no way for him but to play the part of a man of kindliness and honor, leaving a clear field for his preferred rival, and bringing no shadow of regret to mar the happiness of the girl he loved.
Miss Billy — Married 1894
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A teabagger win for any office would be extremely damaging to this country, but this imbecile is willing to risk it to teach the Dems a lesson.
Think Progress » Carl Cameron Gets Chummy With Brown Supporters, Ducks Question Of Fox News’ Ethics 2010
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The imbecile is hopefully the face of the right for future elections for there is no better way to drive people in the other direction than to have Lipstick Fido show up.
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Dorks are just quirky and silly, an imbecile is a person whose mental acumen is well below par.
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The slobbering imbecile is just desperate for company.
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These imbecile is in serious need of a few episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
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The slobbering imbecile is just desperate for company.
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An imbecile is defined as a feeble minded person having the mental age of three to seven years.
Think Progress » Lieberman Flashback: Questioning Bush’s Credibility Is Central To Democracy 2005
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Of course, we can't save those people if some imbecile is in charge of the very effort to save those people.
09/12/2005 2005
brtom commented on the word imbecile
By the way go easy with that money like a good young imbecile. Yes, I must.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
wytukaze commented on the word imbecile
Citation as adjective at sedge.
November 13, 2008
joannasephine commented on the word imbecile
And apparently there's a number: having an IQ of between 25 and 50.
(So worse than a moron.)
July 1, 2009