单词 | impotent |
释义 | impotent (once / 887 pages) adj Impotent means lacking power or authority. Captain Bligh was impotent in the face of Christian's mutiny. It also refers to a man's inability to achieve or maintain an erection. If a man is sterile, or unable to reproduce, he is also called impotent. Those wacky ancients really knew how to mess with you — simply add the prefix im to the front of potent, which means "powerful," and you get its opposite — "powerless." While Viagra can help when the problems are physiological, an impotent leader has lost his ability to govern. No little blue pill will dig him out of that hole. It can also allude to a certain meaninglessness, such as the music critic who wrote that the easy listening genre of pop was so dull as to be "the soundtrack to impotence." WORD FAMILYimpotent: impotence, impotency, impotenter, impotently+/impotence: impotences/impotency: impotencies/potency: potencies, potential, prepotency/potent: impotent, potency, potenter, potentest, potently/potential: potentiality, potentially, potentials/potentiality: potentialities USAGE EXAMPLESThat protest on Fifth Avenue was totally unfocused, an incoherent mess of impotent rage. Slate(Nov 16, 2016) Another claimed that Hemingway wrote because he was impotent. Washington Post(Oct 20, 2016) I laughed once, and it was when the psychiatrist asked Patrick Ewing if he was impotent. The Guardian(Nov 15, 2016) 1adj (of a male) unable to copulate Ant potent, virile (of a male) capable of copulation 2adj lacking power or ability "morality without technology is impotent"- Freeman J.Dyson felt impotent rage Syn|Ant infertile, sterile, unfertile incapable of reproducing ineffective, ineffectual, unablelacking in power or forcefulness impuissantlacking physical strength or vigor powerlesslacking power potent, stiff, strong having a strong physiological or chemical effect effective, effectual, efficaciousproducing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect fertilecapable of reproducing equipotenthaving equal strength or efficacy multipotentable to many things powerfulhaving great power or force or potency or effect |
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