Search Result for "imbecility": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (2)

1. retardation more severe than a moron but not as severe as an idiot;

2. a stupid mistake;
[syn: stupidity, betise, folly, foolishness, imbecility]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Imbecility \Im`be*cil"i*ty\, n.; pl. Imbecilities. [L. imbecillitas: cf. F. imb['e]cillit['e].] The quality of being imbecile; weakness; feebleness, esp. of mind. [1913 Webster] Cruelty . . . argues not only a depravedness of nature, but also a meanness of courage and imbecility of mind. --Sir W. Temple. [1913 Webster] Note: This term is used specifically to denote natural weakness of the mental faculties, affecting one's power to act reasonably or intelligently. Syn: Debility; infirmity; weakness; feebleness; impotence. See Debility. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

imbecility n 1: retardation more severe than a moron but not as severe as an idiot 2: a stupid mistake [syn: stupidity, betise, folly, foolishness, imbecility]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

88 Moby Thesaurus words for "imbecility": amentia, arrested development, asininity, backwardness, battiness, blithering idiocy, brainlessness, buffoonery, clownishness, crackpottedness, crankiness, craziness, cretinism, daffiness, desipience, disability, disablement, disqualification, eccentricity, fatuity, fatuousness, folly, foolery, foolheadedness, foolishness, frivolity, frivolousness, giddiness, goofiness, half-wittedness, idiocy, idiotism, inability, inadequacy, inanity, incapability, incapacitation, incapacity, incompetence, incompetency, inefficiency, ineptitude, infancy, infantilism, inferiority, insanity, insufficiency, legal incapacity, lunacy, madness, mental defectiveness, mental deficiency, mental handicap, mental retardation, mindlessness, minority, mongolianism, mongolism, mongoloid idiocy, moronism, moronity, niaiserie, nugacity, nuttiness, profound idiocy, queerness, retardation, retardment, sappiness, screwiness, senselessness, silliness, simple-wittedness, simplemindedness, simpleness, simplicity, stupidity, subnormality, thoughtlessness, triflingness, triviality, unfitness, wackiness, wardship, weirdness, witlessness, zaniness, zanyism
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

IMBECILITY, med. jur. A weakness of the mind, caused by the absence or obliteration of natural or acquired ideas; or it is described to be an abnormal deficiency either in those faculties which acquaint us with the qualities and ordinary relations of things, or in those which furnish us with the moral motives that regulate our relations and conduct towards our fellow men. It is frequently attended with excessive activity. of one or more of the animal propensities. 2. Imbecility differs from idiocy in this, that the subjects of the former possess some intellectual capacity, though inferior in degree to that possessed by the great mass of mankind; while those of the latter are utterly destitute of reason. Imbecility differs also from stupidity. (q.v.) The former consists in a defect of the mind, which renders it unable to examine the data presented to it by the senses, and therefrom to deduce the correct judgment; that is, a defect of intensity, or reflective power. The latter is occasioned by a want of intensity, or perceptive power. 3. There are various degrees of this disease. It has been attempted to classify the degrees of imbecility, but the careful observer of nature will perhaps be soon satisfied that the shades of difference between one species and another, are almost imperceptible. Ray, Med. Jur. ch. 3; 2 Beck, Med. Jur. 550, 542; 1 Hagg. Ecc. R. 384; 2 Philm. R. 449; 1 Litt. R. 252, 5 John. Ch. R. 161; 1 Litt. R. 101; Des Maladies mentales, considerees dans leurs rapports avec la legislation civille et criminelle, 8; Georget, Discussion medico-legale sur la folie, 140.
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

IMBECILITY, n. A kind of divine inspiration, or sacred fire affecting censorious critics of this dictionary.