Search the Dictionary

Destitute of a husband. Shak.

Destitute of an idea.

A human being destitute of the ordinary intellectual powers, whether congenital, developmental, or accidental; commonly, a person without understanding from birth; a natural fool; a natural; an innocent. Life . . . is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Shak.

Destitute of knowledge; uninstructed or uninformed; untaught; unenlightened. He that doth not know those things which are of use for him to know, is but an ignorant man, whatever he may know besides. Tillotson.

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

me formely applied to heat, light, electricity, and magnetism, regarded as subtile flyids destitute of weight but in modern science little used.

Destitute of pores; very close or compact in texture; solid. Sir T. Browne.

wer, strength. or vigor. whether physical, intellectual, or moral; deficient in capacity; destitute of force; weak; feeble; infirm. There sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent inhis feet. Acts xiv. 8. O most lame and impotent conclusion! Shak. Not slow to hear, Nor impotent to save. Addison.

Not animate; destitute of life or spirit; lifeless; dead; inactive; dull; as, stones and earth are inanimate substances. Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves. Byron.

Destitute of life; lacking animation; unanimated. Pope.

Not clement; destitute of a mild and kind temper; void of tenderness; unmerciful; severe; harsh.

Wanting; void; free; destitute; -- used with of. [Obs.] Bacon.

Unarmed; destitute of prickles or thorns, as a leaf. Gray.

Destitute of the power of moving itself, or of active resistance to motion; as, matter is inert.

Destitute of experience or of much experience. [Obs.] Milton.

Destitute of the kindness and tenderness that belong to a human being; cruel; barbarous; savage; unfeeling; as, an inhuman person or people.

Wanting sensibility; destitute of sense; stupid; foolish. The silence and the calm Of mute, insensate things. Wordsworth. The meddling folly or insensate ambition of statesmen. Buckle. -- In*sen"sate*ly, adv. -- In*sen"sate*ness, n.

Destitute of the power of feeling or perceiving; wanting bodily sensibility. Milton.

Destitute of a backbone; having no vertebræ; of or pertaining to the Invertebrata. -- n.

Destitute of religion; not controlled by religious motives or principles; ungodly. Cf. Impiou. Shame and reproach are generally the portion of the impious and irreligious. South.