"debile" meaning in English

See debile in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /dɛˈbiːl/ Forms: more debile [comparative], most debile [superlative]
enPR: dĕbēlʹ Rhymes: -iːl Etymology: From Middle French débile (“weak”), from Latin dēbilis. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|frm|débile||weak}} Middle French débile (“weak”), {{der|en|la|dēbilis}} Latin dēbilis Head templates: {{en-adj}} debile (comparative more debile, superlative most debile)
  1. (obsolete) Weak; feeble. Tags: obsolete
    Sense id: en-debile-en-adj-i3h2Aga4
  2. (historical) Having debilism. Tags: historical
    Sense id: en-debile-en-adj-ztqgHrfs Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 6 entries, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 3 53 44 Disambiguation of Pages with 6 entries: 3 34 39 3 2 15 3 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 2 37 38 2 1 18 2
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: debilism, debilitate, debilitating, debilitation, debility

Noun

IPA: /dɛˈbiːl/ Forms: debiles [plural]
enPR: dĕbēlʹ Rhymes: -iːl Etymology: From Middle French débile (“weak”), from Latin dēbilis. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|frm|débile||weak}} Middle French débile (“weak”), {{der|en|la|dēbilis}} Latin dēbilis Head templates: {{en-noun}} debile (plural debiles)
  1. (historical) A person with debilism. Tags: historical
    Sense id: en-debile-en-noun-BNP12TkY Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 6 entries, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 3 53 44 Disambiguation of Pages with 6 entries: 3 34 39 3 2 15 3 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 2 37 38 2 1 18 2

Inflected forms

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          "ref": "1962, Christian Astrup, Schizophrenia: Conditional Reflex Studies, Thomas, →ISBN, page 64:",
          "text": "Idiots are often unable to develop stable motor conditional reflexes. Imbeciles and debiles are able to give conditional reflexes.",
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          "ref": "1962 July, The President’s Panel on Mental Retardation: Report of the Mission to The Netherlands, […] U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, page 15:",
          "text": "The Dutch use two basic terms to classify retarded children served by B.L.O. schools: debile and imbecile. In psychometric terms the upper limit of the debile classification is an intelligence quotient of 80 and the lower limit approximately 50 I.Q. […] The debiles are most frequently recognized in the early years of the ordinary primary schools.",
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          "text": "Spherical refraction in Debiles and Imbeciles / Fig. 3. The percentage values for the debiles are placed at the right side of the columns, the values for the imbeciles are placed at the left sides.",
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          "ref": "1967, South African Journal of Pedagogy, volumes 1–5, pages 64–65:",
          "text": "The uncomplicated untalented: This is the pupil whose scholastic progress is that of a debile, although his intellectual potential should enable him to cope with ordinary classwork. […] Another group of “pseudo-debiles.” are those pupils whose problems will not automatically disappear with time and whose eventual progress will demand exceptional educational aid. […] Pupils who have been classified as mentally handicapped due to neurological defects or psycho-neurological dysfunction, experience more problems in the field of visual perception than the debile.",
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        },
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          "ref": "1968, Вопросы клинической неврологии и психиатрии [Voprosy kliničeskoj nevrologii i psixiatrii], volume 7, page 134:",
          "roman": "Voprosy kliničeskoj nevrologii i psixiatrii",
          "text": "Among the feebleminded patients 78.5. per cent were debiles, 16.3 per cent imbeciles, 5.1 per cent idiots. […] The debiles were more inclined to criminal acts than other feebleminded patients.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
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          "ref": "1972, Education and Training of the Mentally Retarded, volumes 7–8, Division on Mental Retardation, Council for Exceptional Children, page 169, column 2:",
          "text": "The Russians have retained the old French system of classification. Debiles are the highest group of retarded, which would roughly correspond to our educable mentally retarded.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1974, Edwin W. Martin, Jr., Donald Blodgett, Stella A. Edwards, William C. Geer, John W. Melcher, “Administration of Education for Handicapped Children in the Soviet Union”, in James J. Gallagher, editor, Windows on Russia: United States–USSR Seminar on Instruction of Handicapped Children, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, page 4:",
          "text": "In the Soviet system the term debiles is used to refer to youngsters who seem comparable to those we identify as educable. Schools for debiles are known as “auxiliary” schools. The Ministry of Health deals with schools for debiles with multiple handicaps and for “imbeciles.”",
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          "ref": "1993, Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, translated by Jane E. Knox and Carol B. Stevens, edited by Robert W. Rieber and Aaron S. Carton, The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky, volume 2 (The Fundamentals of Defectology [Abnormal Psychology and Learning Disabilities]), New York, N.Y.: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, →ISBN, page 200:",
          "text": "The most desirable social combinations to which children are attracted are idiots and imbeciles and imbeciles and debiles. […] Similarly, when debiles are put with other debiles, their numbers averaged 2.0 people with an average duration of 9.2 minutes. On the other hand, when imbeciles and debiles were put together, their collectives averaged 5.2 members and the duration was 12.8 minutes.",
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          "ref": "1999, Andrew Boyd, Baroness Cox: A Voice for the Voiceless, Lion, →ISBN, page 96:",
          "text": "Debiles were incapable of subtle intellectual feelings, which Soviet psychiatry defined as duty, comradeship and satisfaction.",
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        },
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          "ref": "2023, Mark M. Rich, Invisible Eugenics: How the Medical System and Public Schools Are Killing Your Children, 2nd edition:",
          "text": "With the Binet-Simon Test, a mental level and age could be quantified. Those with subnormal intelligence were considered idiots, moderate mental deficients were imbeciles, and debiles were those with mild mental defects.",
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          "text": "Idiots are often unable to develop stable motor conditional reflexes. Imbeciles and debiles are able to give conditional reflexes.",
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          "text": "The Dutch use two basic terms to classify retarded children served by B.L.O. schools: debile and imbecile. In psychometric terms the upper limit of the debile classification is an intelligence quotient of 80 and the lower limit approximately 50 I.Q. […] The debiles are most frequently recognized in the early years of the ordinary primary schools.",
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          "ref": "1964, Jakob Øster, editor, International Copenhagen Congress on the Scientific Study of Mental Retardation, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 7th-14th, 1964, page 781:",
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          "type": "quote"
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          "text": "The uncomplicated untalented: This is the pupil whose scholastic progress is that of a debile, although his intellectual potential should enable him to cope with ordinary classwork. […] Another group of “pseudo-debiles.” are those pupils whose problems will not automatically disappear with time and whose eventual progress will demand exceptional educational aid. […] Pupils who have been classified as mentally handicapped due to neurological defects or psycho-neurological dysfunction, experience more problems in the field of visual perception than the debile.",
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          "text": "Among the feebleminded patients 78.5. per cent were debiles, 16.3 per cent imbeciles, 5.1 per cent idiots. […] The debiles were more inclined to criminal acts than other feebleminded patients.",
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        },
        {
          "ref": "1972, Education and Training of the Mentally Retarded, volumes 7–8, Division on Mental Retardation, Council for Exceptional Children, page 169, column 2:",
          "text": "The Russians have retained the old French system of classification. Debiles are the highest group of retarded, which would roughly correspond to our educable mentally retarded.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1974, Edwin W. Martin, Jr., Donald Blodgett, Stella A. Edwards, William C. Geer, John W. Melcher, “Administration of Education for Handicapped Children in the Soviet Union”, in James J. Gallagher, editor, Windows on Russia: United States–USSR Seminar on Instruction of Handicapped Children, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, page 4:",
          "text": "In the Soviet system the term debiles is used to refer to youngsters who seem comparable to those we identify as educable. Schools for debiles are known as “auxiliary” schools. The Ministry of Health deals with schools for debiles with multiple handicaps and for “imbeciles.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993, Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, translated by Jane E. Knox and Carol B. Stevens, edited by Robert W. Rieber and Aaron S. Carton, The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky, volume 2 (The Fundamentals of Defectology [Abnormal Psychology and Learning Disabilities]), New York, N.Y.: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, →ISBN, page 200:",
          "text": "The most desirable social combinations to which children are attracted are idiots and imbeciles and imbeciles and debiles. […] Similarly, when debiles are put with other debiles, their numbers averaged 2.0 people with an average duration of 9.2 minutes. On the other hand, when imbeciles and debiles were put together, their collectives averaged 5.2 members and the duration was 12.8 minutes.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Andrew Boyd, Baroness Cox: A Voice for the Voiceless, Lion, →ISBN, page 96:",
          "text": "Debiles were incapable of subtle intellectual feelings, which Soviet psychiatry defined as duty, comradeship and satisfaction.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, Mark M. Rich, Invisible Eugenics: How the Medical System and Public Schools Are Killing Your Children, 2nd edition:",
          "text": "With the Binet-Simon Test, a mental level and age could be quantified. Those with subnormal intelligence were considered idiots, moderate mental deficients were imbeciles, and debiles were those with mild mental defects.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person with debilism."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "debilism",
          "debilism"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(historical) A person with debilism."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "historical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "dĕbēlʹ"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/dɛˈbiːl/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-iːl"
    }
  ],
  "word": "debile"
}

Download raw JSONL data for debile meaning in English (10.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (4ba5975 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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