Crossword clues for debility
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Debility \De*bil"i*ty\, n. [L. debilitas, fr. debilis weak, prob. fr. de- + habilis able: cf. F. d['e]bilit['e]. See Able,
-
] The state of being weak; weakness; feebleness; languor.
The inconveniences of too strong a perspiration, which are debility, faintness, and sometimes sudden death.
--Arbuthnot.Syn: Debility, Infirmity, Imbecility.
Usage: An infirmity belongs, for the most part, to particular members, and is often temporary, as of the eyes, etc. Debility is more general, and while it lasts impairs the ordinary functions of nature. Imbecility attaches to the whole frame, and renders it more or less powerless. Debility may be constitutional or may be the result or superinduced causes; Imbecility is always constitutional; infirmity is accidental, and results from sickness or a decay of the frame. These words, in their figurative uses, have the same distinctions; we speak of infirmity of will, debility of body, and an Imbecility which affects the whole man; but Imbecility is often used with specific reference to feebleness of mind.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., from Middle French debilite (Modern French débilité) or directly from Latin debilitatem (nominative debilitas) "a laming, crippling, weakening," from debilis "lame, disabled, crippled," figuratively "weak, helpless," from de- "from, away" (see de-) + -bilis "strength," from PIE root *bel- (see Bolshevik).
Wiktionary
n. A state of physical or mental weakness.
WordNet
n. the state of being weak in health or body (especially from old age) [syn: infirmity, frailty, feebleness, frailness]
Wikipedia
In medicine, debility is being weak or feeble.
Debility can refer to:
- Debility (medical)
- Debility (astrology)
Usage examples of "debility".
Assimilative debility is indicated by an impaired digestion and a consequent suppression, or an abnormal state of the secretions.
Thus, cerebral or brain exhaustion, or debility, is usually the result of mental overwork, while sexual asthenia, or weakness is generally due to abuse of the sexual organs or to sexual excesses.
Impure blood, inherited scrofulous taints, enfeebled circulation, debility, either general or nervous, are all advance agents, inviting catarrhal disease, and preventing rapid recovery from an acute attack, so that a low grade of Chronic Catarrh is generally the sequence.
Even if the system be not enfeebled by excessive losses of blood, debility may result from a continued irritation of the uterine organs, and cause the morbid discharge.
With those whose systems are enfeebled by want, intemperance, exposures or disease, as scrofula or syphilis, the first symptoms usually observed will be a frequent desire to urinate, occasional attacks of diarrhea, flatulency, dropsical swelling of the face, especially under the eyes, and afterwards of the extremities, paleness and increasing debility.
Pityriasis is caused by nutritive debility, and is often associated with erysipelas, rheumatism, and bronchitis.
I diagnosed fibrositis and nervous debility, put him on a very simple diet, and told him I certainly did not consider him fit for any sort of war service.
The appetite is impaired, there is general debility, and the patient is nervous and irritable.
So it was not to heal our own debilities that Don Juan Ponce and I longed to find this wonderful Fountain, for of such shameful debilities we had none at all, he and I.
It is perhaps a certain uneasy consciousness of danger, a suspicion that weakness of soul cannot wield these strong words, that makes debility avoid them, committing itself rather, as if by some pre-established affinity, to the vaguer Latinised vocabulary.
While increasing the discharge of noxious elements accumulated in the system, it promptly arrests the wastes arising from debility, and the unusual breaking down of the cells incident to quick decline.
The constipated condition of the bowels, often leads to congestion of the uterus and leucorrhea, followed by uterine debility, prolapsus, excessive menstruation, anteversion or retroversion of that organ.
The predisposing causes are conceded to be assimilative and nervous debility.
A second menstrual failure strengthens this suspicion, although there are many other causes which might prevent the appearance of the menses, such as disease of the uterus, general debility, or taking cold, and all of these should be taken into account.
It also aids nutrition, and thus tones up the general system, so that in the form of profuse menstruation, resulting from debility, the patient is strengthened, her blood enriched, and her nervousness quieted, which constitutes the necessary treatment to make the cure permanent.