incapacitate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to deprive of power, strength, or capacity; disable
-
to deprive of legal capacity or eligibility
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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incapacitatesimple
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incapacitatessimple
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have incapacitatedperfect
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has incapacitatedperfect
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am incapacitatingprogressive
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are incapacitatingprogressive
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is incapacitatingprogressive
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have been incapacitatingperfect progressive
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has been incapacitatingperfect progressive
Past
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incapacitatedsimple
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had incapacitatedperfect
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was incapacitatingprogressive
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were incapacitatingprogressive
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had been incapacitatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of incapacitate
First recorded in 1650–60; incapacit(y) + -ate 1
Explanation
If you are incapacitated, you can’t do what you normally do, what you’re being asked to do — or perhaps, much of anything. To incapacitate someone is to cause him or her to be unable to function normally, like a bad cold that incapacitates you. The verb incapacitate is related to the word capacity. Capacity comes from the Latin word capacitas, meaning “that can contain,” or how much something — brain, bucket or otherwise — can hold. The prefix in- reverses the meaning and when the suffix -ate is added, incapacitate means someone has been made unable to “contain” much — like attention, effort, or energy.
Vocabulary lists containing incapacitate
Uglies
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Children of Blood and Bone
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Artemis Fowl
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Electroshock weapons are designed to temporarily incapacitate suspects with a shock before police detain them.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
He described them as a "highly intelligent" and "active predator" equipped with "specialised glands that produce venom to incapacitate its prey".
From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2026
Neither of the two collisions “was hard enough to incapacitate or disable” Contreras, said sheriff’s spokesperson Gloria Huerta.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2024
The second study found racial disparities in injuries that occurred when Tasers and similar weapons were used by police to incapacitate people.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2024
While it did not incapacitate the president, it did weaken him and, according to his cabinet, made him even more irascible.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
You know, that thing that occasionally incapacitates him with guilt.
From Salon ● May 15, 2023
“I said to Ginzburg, ‘Why don’t we ask a few psychiatrists whether a nervous breakdown incapacitates someone for public office?’”
From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2023
Unless boxers are allowed to fight until one physically incapacitates the other — which is the way they actually competed at the ancient Olympic Games in 688 B.C. — decisions are an unfortunate necessity.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 1, 2021
“Most experts agree that if a GMD or EMP incapacitates an electrical grid, the grid will likely remain in a failed state from weeks to months,” the report said.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 5, 2018
This horrible fate, I learnt, often befalls poor and solitary pilgrims whom illness or accident incapacitates from proceeding.
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 19 — Travel and Adventure by Hammerton, John Alexander, Sir
Then you can inform your daughter so she’s prepared for the responsibility should you become incapacitated or die.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 4, 2026
In the event that you become incapacitated, she would then make financial decisions on your behalf and carry out tasks like paying your mortgage and other bills and filing your taxes.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 4, 2026
Determining that someone is mentally incapacitated is not a simple process, but people over 16 who fall into this category are protected under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
In 2019, Ed was ailing, and Val was incapacitated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
In any case, practically overnight, Bobby turned himself from a dead stockbroker and incapacitated bon vivant into a live, if somewhat unqualified, agent-appraiser for a society of independent American art galleries and fine arts museums.
From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger
The Timms report finds that there’s been a surge in Brits under age 40 collecting benefits for incapacitating ADHD, autism, anxiety or depression.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
CS spray is a man-made incapacitating gas - exposure to it causes a burning sensation in the eyes and watering.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2026
The findings show the spike design to be extremely effective at damaging the virus' external structure and piercing its membranes, incapacitating 96% of viruses that came into contact with the surface within six hours.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 26, 2024
"It looks like a focal neurologic event. That doesn't mean it's incapacitating, it doesn't mean he can't serve, but it means that somebody ought to wake up and say, 'Wow! This looks like a seizure.'"
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2023
This represents the kinds of things that must be done after the fact, in efforts to compensate for the incapacitating effects of certain diseases whose course one is unable to do very much about.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
