incapacitate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
incapacitates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
incapacitated,
past participle, past
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incapacitating
present participle
verb
-
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
-
incapacitatesimple
-
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
-
is incapacitatingprogressive
-
have been incapacitatingperfect progressive
-
has been incapacitatingperfect progressive
Past
-
incapacitatedsimple
-
had incapacitatedperfect
-
was incapacitatingprogressive
-
were incapacitatingprogressive
-
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:
“Viruses that are extremely lethal often tend to self-contain because they quickly kill or incapacitate their hosts,” said James, who now works with Australia’s Southern Cross University.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Officer 4 said doing so would have been difficult and more likely to put himself and his colleague at risk by failing to incapacitate Bosh.
From BBC ● Mar. 17, 2026
Electroshock weapons are designed to temporarily incapacitate suspects with a shock before police detain them.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
“The executive thus can neither outright abolish an agency nor incapacitate it by cutting away the personnel required to implement the agency’s statutorily-mandated duties.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2025
“Really, Mike, you’ll incapacitate me with laughter. What about a mild cave-in?”
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
You know, that thing that occasionally incapacitates him with guilt.
From Salon ● May 15, 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
Effective to a range of 30 feet, the Alternative incapacitates a person but would very rarely penetrate the skin, he said, citing ballistics tests using leather chamois, foam and gel to simulate the human body.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 3, 2015
In this state I am expected to eat it, and, being in great awe and fear of the inhabitants, I proceed to do so, which incapacitates me for further epistolatory effort.
From Us and the Bottleman by Edith Ballinger Price
At least 19 states, including New York, have a higher bar for the level of intoxication required to deem someone incapacitated and unable to consent.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
For months, rumors circulated that he had actually died, was on life support or was otherwise incapacitated.
From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2026
Who will manage your affairs if you become incapacitated?
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
Related: ‘We fear financial exploitation’: Who will manage our finances if my wife and I become incapacitated?
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
‘Frank, Hazel, Leo... let’s talk. Piper, can you keep our friend musically incapacitated?’
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
The denial of care, Kingdom says, made her gender dysphoria become incapacitating.
From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2026
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
Lights, noises, smells and crowds that others barely notice may cause incapacitating anxiety.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2025
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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
