Incapacitate

//ˌɪn.kəˈpæ.sɪ.teɪt// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make someone or something incapable of doing something; to disable. transitive

    "The police officer was incapacitated by a blow to the head."

  2. 2
    injure permanently wordnet
  3. 3
    To make someone or something incapable of doing something; to disable.; To imprison a potential offender and thereby prevent them from offending. transitive

    "Wilson's principal motivation for situation-oriented policies was the desire to change the real world by proposing politically practicable policies. And his principle prescription was to incapacitate a larger number of habitual offenders."

  4. 4
    make unable to perform a certain action wordnet
  5. 5
    To make someone ineligible; to disqualify. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
disabledisableafflictbankruptbuggercastrate

Example

More examples

"The police officer was incapacitated by a blow to the head."

Etymology

Mid-17th century, from incapacity + -ate (verb-forming suffix). Compare French incapaciter.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.