Retarded
adj, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 people collectively who are mentally retarded wordnet
- 1 simple past and past participle of retard form-of, participle, past
"We know cases where obscurity of style has retarded the recognition of really great writers—but obscurity of style is not a virtue, and they were great in spite of it."
- 1 Delayed; delayed in development, hindered; impeded.
"This kind of plant is usually of a retarded growth."
- 2 Having mental retardation; mentally deficient or underdeveloped. dated, offensive, sometimes
"Experts in the field say there are now at least 200,000 retarded people over 60 in the United States."
- 3 Specifically, having an IQ below 70. dated, offensive, sometimes
- 4 Extremely stupid; obtuse colloquial, derogatory, offensive
"Looking at Jack, Gabbie said, "What?" "That's the Troll Bridge." She groaned at the pun. "That's retarded.""
- 5 Designating a parameter of an electromagnetic field which is adjusted to account for the finite speed of radiation.
- 1 relatively slow in mental or emotional or physical development wordnet
Example
More examples"Not a drop more or a drop less of His blood was for a white man or black man, a male or female, old or young, retarded, crippled, blind, deaf, dumb or precious baby in the womb."
Etymology
From retard + -ed.
Related phrases
More for "retarded"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.