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The quality or state of being plenipotent. [R.]

The quality or state of being potent; physical or moral power; inherent strength; energy; ability to effect a purpose; capability; efficacy; influence. "Drugs of potency." Hawthorne. A place of potency and away o' the state. Shak.

A chief ruler; a potentate. [Obs.] Wyclif. "An irous potestate." Chaucer.

Full of power; capable of producing great effects of any kind; potent; mighty; efficacious; intense; as, a powerful man or beast; a powerful engine; a powerful argument; a powerful light; a powerful vessel. The powerful grace that lies In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities. Shak.

Destitute of power, force, or energy; weak; impotent; not able to produce any effect. -- Pow"er*less*ly, adv. -- Pow"er*less*ness, n.

; preëminent eminent before or above others. Pre- is sometimes used intensively, as in prepotent, very potent. [Written also præ-.]

The quality or condition of being prepotent; predominance. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

arious points of an electric system to a central station, where a voltmeter indicates the potential of the system at those points.

on. Neglect of friends can never be proved rational till we prove the person using it omnipotent and self-sufficient, and such as can never need any mortal assistance. South.

casion of concerted action. All obeyed The wonted signal and superior voice Of this great potentate. Milton.

A perennial rosaceous herb (Potentilla Anserina) having the leaves silvery white beneath.

Having no power to move one's self or itself; inert. Matter, being impotent, sluggish, and inactive, hath no power to stir or move itself. Woodward. And the sluggish land slumbers in utter neglect. Longfellow.

An impotent person.

The space filled with air or other dielectric between high potential terminals (as of an electrostatic machine, induction coil, or condenser), through which the discharge passes; the air gap of a jump spark.

Transforming or converting a current of high potential or pressure into one of low pressure; as, a step-down transformer.

homoiothermal) animals during life. The ultimate source of the heat is to be found in the potential energy of the food and the oxygen which is absorbed from the air during respiration. See Homoiothermal. -- Temperature sense (Physiol.), the faculty of perceiving cold and warmth, and so of perceiving differences of tem…

, as into the air by a spark, or to pass from a body of greater to one of less electrical potential. It varies as the quantity of electricity upon a given area. Tension brace, or Tension member (Engin.), a brace or member designed to resist tension, or subjected to tension, in a structure. -- Tension rod (Engin.), an…

A rosaceous herb (Potentilla Tormentilla), the root of which is used as a powerful astringent, and for alleviating gripes, or tormina, in diarrhea.

Not able; not having sufficient strength, means, knowledge, skill, or the like; impotent' weak; helpless; incapable; -- now usually followed by an infinitive or an adverbial phrase; as, unable for work; unable to bear fatigue. Sapless age and weak unable limbs. Shak.

Destitute of genitals; impotent. [R.] Shak.