Search the Dictionary

The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery. It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them. Hallam. They a…

To be ruined or impaired; to fail. [Collog.] The credit . . . of exchequers cracks, when little comes in and much goes out. Dryden.

Having an impaired intellect; whimsical; crazy. Pope.

To weaken; to impair; to render decrepit. [Obs.] Till length of years, And sedentary numbness, craze my limbs. Milton.

A broken state; decrepitude; an impaired state of the intellect.

To ocassion damage to the soudness, goodness, or value of; to hurt; to injure; to impair. He . . . came up to the English admiral and gave him a broadside, with which he killed many of his men and damaged the ship. Clarendon.

Capable of being injured or impaired; liable to, or susceptible of, damage; as, a damageable cargo.

To make as dead; to impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation; to lessen the force or acuteness of; to blunt; as, to deaden the natural powers or feelings; to deaden a sound.

To impair the strength of; to weaken; to enfeeble; as, to debilitate the body by intemperance. Various ails debilitate the mind. Jenyns. The debilitated frame of Mr. Bertram was exhausted by this last effort. Sir W. Scott.

To cause to decay; to impair. [R.] Infirmity, that decays the wise. Shak.

s a close, decay, or extinction; to tend to a less perfect state; to become diminished or impaired; to fail; to sink; to diminish; to lessen; as, the day declines; virtue declines; religion declines; business declines. That empire must decline Whose chief support and sinews are of coin. Waller. And presume to know . .…

To make worse; to make inferior in quality or value; to impair; as, to deteriorate the mind. Whately. The art of war . . . was greatly deteriorated. Southey.

To impair by waste and abuse; to squander. The patrimony of the bishopric of Oxon was much dilapidated. Wood.

Ecclesiastical waste; impairing of church property by an incumbent, through neglect or by intention. The business of dilapidations came on between our bishop and the Archibishop of York. Strype.

ctual power; to incapacitate; to disqualify; to make incompetent or unfit for service; to impair. A Christian's life is a perpetual exercise, a wrestling and warfare, for which sensual pleasure disables him. Jer. Taylor. And had performed it, if my known offense Had not disabled me. Milton. I have disabled mine estate.…

One whose mind is impaired by age; one in second childhood. The sickly dotard wants a wife. Prior.

To be weak-minded, silly, or idiotic; to have the intellect impaired, especially by age, so that the mind wanders or wavers; to drivel. Time has made you dote, and vainly tell Of arms imagined in your lonely cell. Dryden. He survived the use of his reason, grew infatuated, and doted long before he died. South.…

Impairment of any of the senses, esp. of touch.

To impair. [Obs.] Spenser.

nerve, force, strength, or courage; to render feeble or impotent; to make effeminate; to impair the moral powers of. A man . . . enervated by licentiousness. Macaulay. And rhyme began t' enervate poetry. Dryden.