debility

Etymology

From Middle English debylite, from Old French debilité (French débilité), from Latin dēbilitās (“weakness”), from dēbilis (“weak”), from dē- + habilis (“able”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈbɪlɪti/
• Rhymes: -ɪlɪti

Noun

debility (countable and uncountable, plural debilities)

1. A state of physical or mental weakness.
   • 1818 — Mary Shelley. Frankenstein.

     As I was in a state of extreme debility, I resolved to sail directly towards the town, as a place where I could most easily procure nourishment.

     […]

     I was ready to sink from fatigue and hunger, but being surrounded by a crowd, I thought it politic to rouse all my strength, that no physical debility might be construed into apprehension or conscious guilt.

   • 1886, Robert Louis Stephenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:

     I was struck besides with the shocking expression of his face, with his remarkable combination of great muscular activity and great apparent debility of constitution

Further reading

• debility in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• debility in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911