Search the Dictionary

to all requirements; adeqouate; sufficient; suitable; capable; legally qualified; fit. "A competent knowledge of the world." Arrerbury. "Competent age." Grafton. "Competent statesmen." Palfrey. /"A competent witness." Bouvier.

In a competent manner; adequately; suitably.

Not competent; wanting in adequate strength, power, capacity, means, qualifications, or the like; incapable; unable; inadequate; unfit. Incompetent to perform the duties of the place. Macaulay.

In an competent manner; inadequately; unsuitably.

or resources of any kind to accomplish the object; possessed of qualifications rendering competent for some end; competent; qualified; capable; as, an able workman, soldier, seaman, a man able to work; a mind able to reason; a person able to be generous; able to endure pain; able to play on a piano.…

Having a sound, strong body; physically competent; robust. "Able-bodied vagrant." Froude. -- A`ble-bod"ied*ness, n..

which particulars, being confessedly knotty and difficult can never be accorded but by a competent stock of critical learning. South.

isposal, under legal authority, of the estate of an intestate, or of a testator having no competent executor.

man who manages or settles the estate of an intestate, or of a testator when there is no competent executor; one to whom the right of administration has been committed by competent authority.

Competent power; validity; efficacy; as, the availableness of a title. [Obs.]

Possessing adequate power; qualified; able; fully competent; as, a capable instructor; a capable judge; a mind capable of nice investigations. More capable to discourse of battles than to give them. Motley.

to be cast in damages. She was cast to be hanged. Jeffrey. Were the case referred to any competent judge, they would inevitably be cast. Dr. H. More.

a juror or to a member of a court martial, coupled with a demand that he should be held incompetent to act; the claim of a party that a certain person or persons shall not sit in trial upon him or his cause. Blackstone

The state of being competent; fitness; ability; adequacy; power. The loan demonstrates, in regard to instrumental resources, the competency of this kingdom to the assertion of the common cause. Burke. To make them act zealously is not in the competence of law. Burke.

One appointed to act as guardian of the estate of a person not legally competent to manage it, or of an absentee; a trustee; a guardian.

Moderate, but competent; sufficient; hence, respectable; fairly good; reasonably comfortable or satisfying; as, a decent fortune; a decent person. A decent retreat in the mutability of human affairs. Burke. -- De"cent*ly, adv. -- De"cent*ness, n.

ng; also, testimony laid or taken down in writting, under oath or affirmation, befor some competent officer, and in reply to interrogatories and cross-interrogatories.

State of being disabled; deprivation or want of ability; absence of competent physical, intellectual, or moral power, means, fitness, and the like. Grossest faults, or disabilities to perform what was covenanted. Milton. Chatham refused to see him, pleading his disability. Bancroft.

er unable or incapable; to destroy the force, vigor, or power of action of; to deprive of competent physical or intellectual 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 disable…

To separate into competent parts; to disorganize; to break up; hence, to bring to an end by separating the parts, sundering a relation, etc.; to terminate; to destroy; to deprive of force; as, to dissolve a partnership; to dissolve Parliament. Lest his ungoverned rage dissolve the life. Shak.