a disability or disadvantage that makes achievement unusually difficult
an artificial advantage or disadvantage given to contestants so that all have a more equal chance of winning, or a race or contest with such an advantage or disadvantage
the number of strokes by which a golfer on average exceeds par for a course
the extra weight assigned to a racehorse as a handicap
[orig in the sense ‘a game in which forfeits were held in a cap’, from hand in cap]