FEEBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does feeble mean? 

• FEEBLE (adjective)
  The adjective FEEBLE has 4 senses:

1. pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness

2. lacking strength or vigor

3. lacking bodily or muscular strength or vitality

4. lacking strength

  Familiarity information: FEEBLE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FEEBLE (adjective)

Comparative: feebler   
Superlative: feeblest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness

Synonyms:

feeble; lame

Context example:

a lame argument

Similar:

weak (wanting in physical strength)

Derivation:

feebleness (the quality of lacking intensity or substance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking strength or vigor

Synonyms:

faint; feeble

Context example:

a feeble voice

Similar:

weak (wanting in physical strength)

Derivation:

feebleness (the quality of lacking intensity or substance)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lacking bodily or muscular strength or vitality

Synonyms:

debile; decrepit; feeble; infirm; rickety; sapless; weak; weakly

Context example:

her body looked sapless

Similar:

frail (physically weak)

Derivation:

feebleness (the state of being weak in health or body (especially from old age))

Sense 4

Meaning:

Lacking strength

Synonyms:

feeble; nerveless

Context example:

a weak, nerveless fool, devoid of energy and promptitude

Similar:

powerless (lacking power)

Derivation:

feebleness (the state of being weak in health or body (especially from old age))

 Context examples 

The study door flew open, the little red wrapper appeared on the threshold, joy put strength into the feeble limbs, and Beth ran straight into her father's arms.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

We could get no information from her, however, as she is very old and feeble.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I remembered that Challenger had declared that man could not exist upon the plateau, since with his feeble weapons he could not hold his own against the monsters who roamed over it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I do not speak to the feeble, or think of them: I address only such as are worthy of the work, and competent to accomplish it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“I am not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was not much more feeble than his own.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That I retired to bed in a most maudlin state of mind, and got up in a crisis of feeble infatuation.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With a sigh he took, with a feeble effort, my hand in that of his own which was unstained.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He picked it up, though its weight was almost too much for his feeble fingers.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

From the front window upon the left of the door there peeped a glimmer of a feeble light.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble voice but heartily.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)