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Disabling   Listen
adjective
disabling  adj.  
1.
Causing or having caused disability; rendering disabled; as, disabling injury.
Synonyms: crippling, incapacitating.
2.
Depriving of legal right; rendering legally disqualified; as, certain disabling restrictions disqualified him for citizenship. Antonym: enabling.
Synonyms: disqualifying.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Disabling" Quotes from Famous Books



... men rushed up to him, and found that the supposition was correct; the ball had passed through the fleshy part of his thigh, disabling, but not dangerously wounding him. The ruffian—we do not call him so because he was a rebel, but he was naturally and by education just what the term indicates—was as ...
— The Young Lieutenant - or, The Adventures of an Army Officer • Oliver Optic

... migrated to the north and joined themselves with the Iroquois, we would not forget those few who remained with King James Blunt, a Tuscarora Chief, in North Carolina, who had a tract of land allotted to them on Pamplico river. The smallness of their number disabling them from resisting the attacks of the southern Indians, Governor Charles Eden, of North Carolina, and the council, on the 5th day of June, 1718, entered into a treaty, by which the land on Pamplico ...
— Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indians • Elias Johnson

... character. In February, 1904, Japan withdrew her minister from the capital of Russia and three days later, without the formality of a declaration of war, attacked the Russian fleets at Chemulpo and Port Arthur. The result was the sinking of two Russian ships in Chemulpo harbor, and the disabling of a number ...
— A History of The Nations and Empires Involved and a Study - of the Events Culminating in The Great Conflict • Logan Marshall

... unbuttoned his coat and drew one of its folds over her head. Ah, the blessed relief of it! Freed from the stifling showers of spray, she drew a deep breath or two. How good he was to her! How sure she was now that if he had been spared by that disabling shell he would ...
— The Stowaway Girl • Louis Tracy

... and thus harmlessly ends the action which for a few moments threatened so much, teaching us the folly of too near approaches to land, or attempts to batter down, to which we have often been tempted, the earthworks daily erecting. It is folly to attempt it, because the disabling of these few blockade steamers would open the port to all who choose to barter with our Southern foes; and, en passant, this will explain why here and elsewhere the rebels build their works under the very noses of our men-of-war. Thus ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol. 6, No. 1, July, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy. • Various

... the Cape, still anxiously looking out for the homeward-bound steamer, which would of course prove a very far richer prize than the one home-bound vessel he had captured. The following afternoon the precaution was taken of disabling the captured vessel, by removing from her engines the "bonnet of the steam chest and a steam valve," which were sent into safe custody on board the Alabama; care being also taken to prevent the Ariel from availing ...
— The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter • Raphael Semmes

... cowardly character of Robespierre was unfit for such a crisis. He appeared altogether confounded and overwhelmed with what had passed and was passing around him; and not one of all the victims of the reign of terror felt its disabling influence so completely as he, the despot who had so long directed its sway. He had not, even though the means must have been in his power, the presence of mind to disperse money in considerable sums, which of ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox

... to the ant that any soft-shelled creatures could be on the turtle's back." "I think," said Bearwarden, "it will be the part of wisdom to return to the Callisto, and do the rest of our exploring on Jupiter from a safe height; for, though we succeeded in disabling this beauty, it was largely through luck, and had we not done so we should probably have provided a bon bouche for our deceased friend, instead of standing at his grave." Accordingly they proceeded, and were delighted, a few ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds • J. J. Astor

... it. When an Esquimau of Alaska has killed a fox, he carefully cuts the tendons of all the animal's legs in order to prevent the ghost from reanimating the body and walking about. But hamstringing the carcase is not the only measure which the prudent savage adopts for the sake of disabling the ghost of his victim. In old days, when the Aino went out hunting and killed a fox first, they took care to tie its mouth up tightly in order to prevent the ghost of the animal from sallying forth and warning its fellows against the approach of the hunter. The Gilyaks of the Amoor River ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... couple of native daggers, and took no other arms. They did not take off their boots, but wound round them numerous strips of blanket, so that they would tread noiselessly, and yet if obliged to run for it would avoid the risk of cutting their feet and disabling themselves in their flight. Then, making sure that by this time Mr. Johnson would have given orders to his men not to fire if they heard a noise close at hand, they went noiselessly to the breastwork which ran from the battery to ...
— In Times of Peril • G. A. Henty

... ranks by scores; those in the rear fled panic-stricken from the woods. Some of the Americans rallied and formed a defense, but it cost them dearly. Herkimer, their brave leader, had been hit by a bullet among the first, but in spite of the fact that his wound was a disabling one, he continued to direct his men and encourage them by his firm demeanor to fight on. This bravery caused the enemy to retire, leaving the little band of heroes to withdraw unmolested from the field. Two hundred men were killed, and Herkimer ...
— See America First • Orville O. Hiestand

... ice-floes through which we were butting, ramming, and fighting our way. All hands were over the side at once, and very soon patients began needing a doctor. Here a cut, there a wrench or sprain, and later came thirty or forty at a time with snow-blindness or conjunctivitis—very painful and disabling, though not fatal ...
— A Labrador Doctor - The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell

... also be done for despite to bring our aduersaries in contempt, as he that sayd by one (commended for a very braue souldier) disabling him scornefully, thus. A iollie man (forsooth) and fit for the warre, Good at hand grippes, better to fight a farre: Whom bright weapon in shew as is said, Yea his owne shade; hath often ...
— The Arte of English Poesie • George Puttenham

... Petyte, grocer, and Paul Wythypol,(1149) the merchant-tailor whose election as alderman had recently created no little trouble. Among other members was Thomas Cromwell,(1150) a friend of Wolsey, and destined soon to take his place as the king's chief adviser. A bill for disabling the cardinal from being restored to his former dignities was carried by the Lords and sent down to the Commons (1 Dec.). There it is said to have met with the strenuous opposition of Cromwell. Of ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume I • Reginald R. Sharpe

... and a half including board. We were to sail next day, and true to time we started, but owing to a heavy wind we were obliged to run in and anchor at Berwick. While there a revenue cutter which was cruising about came too close to us and knocked our little vessel's bowsprit off, disabling her for three days; but when all was put right we again set sail, and having a fair wind soon arrived in the ...
— The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence - A Hero of the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns • William Lawrence

... a great dread of coming in contact with the ant-bear and, after disabling him in the chase, never think of approaching him till he be quite dead. It is perhaps on account of this caution that naturalists have never yet given to the world a true and correct drawing of this ...
— Wanderings In South America • Charles Waterton

... Another use is against artillery positions, the clouds of gas from the lachrymal shells making it almost impossible for the men to serve the guns. I was also told of these shells having been used with great success to surround the headquarters of a divisional commander, disabling him and his ...
— Italy at War and the Allies in the West • E. Alexander Powell

... a few words that Andrew could not understand. The small Indian again approached and after making several feints, struck with the tomahawk, but Andrew dodged and received the blow on his wrist instead of his head; and the wound though deep was not disabling. By a sudden and mighty effort he now shook himself free from the giant, and snatching up a loaded rifle from the sand, shot the small Indian as he rushed on him. But at that moment the larger Indian, rising up, seized him and hurled him ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume Two - From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1777-1783 • Theodore Roosevelt

... word can be said for the ultimate effect of the policy as carried beyond the moderate limit required by hygiene. Up to the point at which it will avert undue pressure upon workers, stop disastrous driving and the early disabling of men, the effect is so good as amply to justify the reduction of product and pay which the policy occasions. Beyond that there is nothing whatever to be said for it, and if it shall become a general and settled policy of trade unions, it will be a clog upon progress and mean a permanent ...
— Essentials of Economic Theory - As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public Policy • John Bates Clark

... the property of an individual for private uses with or without compensation. "The clause," he argued, "by which it is declared that no man's property shall be taken or applied to public use, without compensation made, is a disabling, not an enabling one, and the right would have existed in full force without it." (Harvey v. Thomas, 10 Watts, 63.) Fortunately, the decision of the court in that case did not require a resort to that reasoning, ...
— An Essay on Professional Ethics - Second Edition • George Sharswood

... avoid sharing her fate. Sparkles and flashes of flame were next seen leaping from place to place on board of the great hulk, as if the element had had the sense and purpose of spreading wider the consternation, and disabling the few who still paid attention to the commands of their Admiral, and endeavoured to extinguish the fire. The consciousness of the combustible nature of the freight, began to add despair to terror; from the boltsprit, the rigging, the yards, the sides, ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott

... roused from their peaceful slumbers, and marched down to the landing-place. Meanwhile, a battery of one gun, posted on the heights, and another about a mile below, began to play on the enemy's boats, sinking some and disabling others. ...
— The Ontario Readers - Third Book • Ontario Ministry of Education

... Edmonstone doubly annoyed, the next morning, at waking with a disabling headache, which made it quite impossible for her to attempt going to Mary Ross's fete. With great sincerity, Amy entreated to be allowed to remain at home, but she thought it would only be making the change more ...
— The Heir of Redclyffe • Charlotte M. Yonge

... effort Peeke succeeded in killing one of his opponents and disabling the other two. Then for a moment he feared the threatening anger of the crowd, but the nobles showed great generosity in their admiration of his pluck, whether they felt mortified or not, and he was treated with extreme kindness, both then and afterwards. He 'was kept in ...
— Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts • Rosalind Northcote

... the young lieutenant, he was really a prudent and even cautious officer. He realized that any movement on his part would draw the fire of the insolent intruder, and he saw that strategy was far preferable to open violence, since the latter was likely to end only in killing or disabling him. If he could visit his stateroom and obtain his pair of navy revolvers, or even the smaller ones in one of the drawers of his desk, it would improve the chances in his favor. It was evident that he would not be permitted to do this, and ...
— Stand By The Union - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray—Afloat • Oliver Optic

... were further disarranged by the disabling of two Eskimos. I had counted on having a pickax brigade, composed of Marvin, MacMillan, and Dr. Goodsell, ahead of the main party, improving the road, but found that two Eskimos would be unfit to go on the ice—one ...
— The North Pole - Its Discovery in 1909 under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club • Robert E. Peary

... imposed. The House might perhaps expel Wilkes, but it could not either legally or with regard to the less definite limits of constitutional morality, decide whom the Middlesex freeholders should not elect, and it could not therefore set aside their representative, who was then free from any disabling quality. Lord Camden did not much exaggerate, when he declared in a debate on the subject in the House of Lords, that the judgment passed upon the Middlesex election had given the constitution a more dangerous wound than any which were given ...
— Burke • John Morley

... into the trapped men. Until the gate at the lower end gave way under the weight of horses crowded against it, there was a bloody slaughter. Within a few minutes Flint and nine of his men were killed, some fifteen more were given disabling wounds, eighty-two prisoners were taken, and over a hundred horses and large quantities of arms and ammunition were captured. The remains of Flint's force was chased as far as Dranesville. Mosby was still getting ...
— Rebel Raider • H. Beam Piper

... have to attain her end, the permanent disabling of the maritime supremacy of Great Britain, by another and less provocative measure. It is here and in just these circumstances that the third contingency, and one no Englishman I venture to think, has ever dreamed of, would be born on the field of battle and baptized a Germanic godchild with ...
— The Crime Against Europe - A Possible Outcome of the War of 1914 • Roger Casement

... putty. At this exhibition of titanic strength I think we all simultaneously stepped backward, and Bradley drew his revolver and fired. The bullet struck the thing in the neck, just above its body; but instead of disabling it, merely increased its rage. Its hissing rose to a shrill scream as it raised half its body out of water onto the sloping sides of the hull of the U-33 and endeavored to scramble upon the deck ...
— The Land That Time Forgot • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... latter craft mercilessly sent four shells crashing into the "Congress," notwithstanding that Commodore Buchanan had a brother, McKean Buchanan, paymaster on the "Congress,"—a harrowing illustration of the horrifying encounters among the closest kindred in civil warfare. After disabling the "Congress," the "Merrimac" directed her attention to the "Cumberland," and under a full head of steam her iron prow or ram, which projected four feet, struck the Federal ship "nearly at right angles under the fore rigging in the starboard fore channels." I quote further from Maclay's "History ...
— Thirteen Chapters of American History - represented by the Edward Moran series of Thirteen - Historical Marine Paintings • Theodore Sutro

... time the Albemarle's guns were fired. A shot seemed to go crashing through my boat, and a dense mass of water rolled in from the torpedo, filling the launch, and completely disabling her. ...
— Reminiscences of Two Years in the United States Navy • John M. Batten

... "the most principal arguments" that are used in defence of this "vile custome," proceeds "to speake of the sinnes and vanities committed in the filthy abuse thereof." And 1. As being a sinneful and shameful lust.—2. As a branch of drunkennesse.—3. As disabling both persons and goods. His majesty concludes the "Counterblaste" by calling the smoking of tobacco "a custome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmeful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the blacke and stinking fume thereof, nearest ...
— The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 • Various

... there had been a testimony against the design thereof, as there was none, and could be none consistent with the continuance thereof; so being conveyed from absolute power, which all were required to obey without reserve, stopping, suspending, and disabling all the penal statutes against papists; thereby undermining all the legal bulwarks of our religion; The addressing for, and accepting of it, so conveyed, without a witness against this despotical encroachment, (yea, the very condition ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie

... Dissemination of Obscenity, Child Pornography, and Material Harmful to Minors 2. Protecting the Unwilling Viewer 3. Preventing Unlawful or Inappropriate Conduct 4. Summary B. Narrow Tailoring C. Less Restrictive Alternatives D. Do CIPA's Disabling Provisions Cure the Defect? VI. Conclusion; ...
— Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) Ruling • United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

... fever gradually disappeared in the fall of 1898, with the approach of cold weather, and the consequent disabling of the fly. ...
— Insects and Diseases - A Popular Account of the Way in Which Insects may Spread - or Cause some of our Common Diseases • Rennie W. Doane

... mere fire at a distance may finally destroy him. But an insuperable objection to this mode of attack is, that while we are killing or disabling his men, he is killing or disabling as many of ...
— A Treatise on the Tactical Use of the Three Arms: Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry • Francis J. Lippitt

... to do justice to them. It must suffice to say that during that eventful period the youngster saw enough fighting to satisfy him for the remainder of his life—desperate, ferocious, hand-to-hand fighting, in which neither side ever dreamed of asking or giving quarter, in which a disabling wound was immediately followed by death upon the spear-points of the enemy, and the salient characteristics of which were continuous ear-splitting yells, the shrill whistling of the savages, the rumbling thunder of thousands of fiercely rushing feet, blinding clouds ...
— The Adventures of Dick Maitland - A Tale of Unknown Africa • Harry Collingwood

... his assistance, drew up a memorial on the character of the India Bill, on its inevitable fruits if it should pass (which it described as an extinction of "more than half of the royal power, and a consequent disabling of his Majesty for the rest of his reign"), and on the most effectual plan for defeating it; for which end it was suggested that his Majesty should authorize some one to make some of the Lords "acquainted with his wishes" that the bill ...
— The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860 • Charles Duke Yonge

... the close of 1856 a party of five men were crossing the desert of Shikarpur, being on their way from Kandahar to that city, when the blast crossed their path, killing three of them instantly and seriously disabling the ...
— A Ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan • Harry De Windt

... king's ligeance; except only that he is incapable, as well as a denizen, of being a member of the privy council, or parliament, &c[i]. No bill for naturalization can be received in either house of parliament, without such disabling clause in it[k]. Neither can any person be naturalized or restored in blood, unless he hath received the sacrament of the Lord's supper within one month before the bringing in of the bill; and unless he also takes the oaths ...
— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone

... the infirmities of one so old. The danger of drawing some others of the hunters to the spot, by repeated firing, was deemed a sufficient reason for not again resorting to the rifle, after it had performed the important duty of disabling the victim. The weapon of the dead man was not to be found, and had doubtless, together with many other less valuable and lighter articles, that he was accustomed to carry about his person, become a ...
— The Prairie • J. Fenimore Cooper

... the light of the lantern, and instantly Don Alberto's sword fell from his hand. Trombin had run him neatly through the right forearm, completely disabling him at the ...
— Stradella • F(rancis) Marion Crawford

... The blow on his right arm placed him at a great disadvantage. Mr. Dootleby knew he could not fight long. Every second drew heavily upon his vitality. But he made no useless expenditure of his strength. His blows were intelligently directed toward the accomplishment of a specific object in the disabling of his enemy, and each of them did its appointed work. At last exposing himself by a sudden lunge, Pete was thrown, and he did not rise. He ...
— Tin-Types Taken in the Streets of New York • Lemuel Ely Quigg

... of painting was followed by others like it. The disabling of Lescott's left hand made the constant companionship of the boy a matter that needed no explanation or apology, though not a matter of approval to ...
— The Call of the Cumberlands • Charles Neville Buck

... this sentiment is carried too far, and has degenerated into pride; for, when God in His wisdom sees fit, by means of disabling accident or declining health, to incapacitate a man from labour, it is as honourable in him to receive charity as it is (although not always sufficiently esteemed so) a high privilege and luxury of the ...
— Deep Down, a Tale of the Cornish Mines • R.M. Ballantyne

... craft to be dealt with, and, after her, the gunboat; the whole operation of disabling the three vessels being accomplished with almost ludicrous ease in about an hour and a quarter: after which the adventurers returned to the yacht and hoisted in the submarine, stowing her away and concealing her in the quarter boat, without, so far as they ...
— The Cruise of the Thetis - A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection • Harry Collingwood

... flashed up with his own gun. He drove a disabling shot through Dalton's wrist as the ranch foreman was coming up to fire, and kicked the gun that he dropped out of reach of his other hand. The cowboy who had caught Macdonald's desperate blow had staggered back against the foot of the bed and fallen. Now ...
— The Rustler of Wind River • G. W. Ogden

... Grand Old Assailant, who's expert At beat and re-beat, press, and graze, and bind, Will try his best at a disabling hurt; It is not mere parade that's in his mind. Meanwhile he's taking measure of his foe, Meanwhile his foe of him is taking stock; And anon they'll come together in ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98 February 15, 1890 • Various

... reward of twenty pounds for the discovery of any officer or soldier who, since the passing of the Test Act, "hath been perverted to the Romish religion, or hears mass." Two days later a bill was framed "for more effectually preserving the king's person and government, by disabling papists from sitting in either House of Parliament." As it was feared a clause would be inserted in this, excluding the Duke of York, the enemies of his royal highness more plainly avowed their object by moving that an address be presented to ...
— Royalty Restored - or, London under Charles II. • J. Fitzgerald Molloy

... themselves to dig away with hands and sticks and spears, a task that was made very difficult to them by about a score of our people who stabbed at them with their long lances or dashed them down with stones, killing and disabling many. But always the dead and wounded were dragged off while others took their places, so that at last the gateway was practically cleared. Then I called back the spearmen who passed into the ranks behind us, and made ready to play ...
— The Ivory Child • H. Rider Haggard

... more offended at them. If you think that by killing men you can prevent some one from censuring your evil lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honourable; the easiest and the noblest way is not to be disabling others, but to be improving yourselves. This is the prophecy which I utter before my departure to the judges who have ...
— Apology - Also known as "The Death of Socrates" • Plato

... still busy on Saturday with the Bill of Qualifications or "Disabling Bill," but whose sitting on Monday is marked only by a hiatus in the Journals, had not formed the House on Tuesday morning when the procession of secluded members, swelled to about eighty by stragglers on the way, entered and ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson

... fragment of shell. After awhile the wound was regarded as a practical benefit. It secured a furlough of indefinite length, good eating, the attention and admiration of the fair, and, if permanently disabling, a discharge. Wisdom, born of experience, soon taught all hands better sense, and the fences and trees and ditches and rocks became valuable, and eagerly sought after when "the music" of "minie" and the roar of the "Napoleon" twelve-pounders was heard. Death on the field, ...
— Detailed Minutiae of Soldier life in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865 • Carlton McCarthy

... Eumelus given The mare (for such the pleasure seem'd of all) Had not the son of mighty Nestor risen, 670 Antilochus, who pleaded thus his right. Achilles! acting as thou hast proposed, Thou shalt offend me much, for thou shalt take The prize from me, because the Gods, his steeds And chariot-yoke disabling, render'd vain 675 His efforts, and no failure of his own. It was his duty to have sought the Gods In prayer, then had he not, following on foot His coursers, hindmost of us all arrived. But if thou pity him, and deem it good, 680 Thou hast ...
— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer

... at first one would be disinclined to believe that this weak bird, with her soft and tender bill and claws, should ever be able to bore the stubborn sand-bank without entirely disabling herself; yet with these feeble instruments have I seen a pair of them make great dispatch: and could remark how much they had scooped that day by the fresh sand which ran down the bank, and was of a different colour from ...
— The Natural History of Selborne • Gilbert White

... how shall this man be reclaimed from this sin? How shall he be brought, wrought, and made, to be out of love with it? Doubtless it can be by no other means, by what we can see in the Word, but by the wounding, breaking, and disabling of the heart that loves it, and by that means making it a plague and gall unto it. Sin may be made an affliction, and as gall and wormwood to them that love it; but the making of it so bitter a thing to such a man, will not be done but by ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... months, and the months became many years. More than that we never knew. Some inquiry revealed the fact, after a while, that a slight accident had occurred, upon the Erie Railroad, to the train which she should have taken. There was some disabling, but no deaths, the conductor had supposed. The car had fallen into the water. She might not have been missed when the half-drowned passengers were all ...
— Men, Women, and Ghosts • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

... soldier's business is to kill or rather to disable, as many of the enemy as possible on the field of battle. This disabling process means, of course, and necessarily, the maiming unto death of many. Such killing is not only lawful, but obligatory. War, like the surgeon's knife, must often lop off much in order to save the whole. The best soldier is he who inflicts most damage ...
— Explanation of Catholic Morals - A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals • John H. Stapleton

... Texas wanted, however, was time. If he could pass a half minute without a disabling wound, he would have help. He retreated a little, or rather he edged away toward the right, wheeling and curveting after the manner of the Apaches, in order to present an unsteady mark for their archery. To keep them at a distance he fired one barrel of his revolver, though without effect. ...
— Overland • John William De Forest

... ninth and a tenth were promptly put beyond power to hurt him by wounds ingeniously disabling, but far from deadly. ...
— The Unwilling Vestal • Edward Lucas White

... marksmen hoped to do was either to kill the pilot or else to strike some vulnerable part of the engine, thus disabling it and wrecking the plane. Those were chances which had to be taken continually; but as a rule the rapidity of flight rendered ...
— Air Service Boys Over the Atlantic • Charles Amory Beach

... the boats; they were now nearly opposite the speaker. Then came the word—"Fire." Six cannon loaded with grape were discharged, and a crackle of musketry at the same moment broke out. The shot tore through the boats, killing and disabling many, and bringing down the ...
— Rujub, the Juggler • G. A. Henty

... public-house was a mile away. Immunity from interference by the British workman was thus assured. It occurred to me that by placing my three depressed looking relatives on one raft, attacking them myself from another, taking the eldest girl's sixpence away from her, disabling their raft, and leaving them to drift without a rudder, innocent amusement would be provided for half an hour ...
— Idle Ideas in 1905 • Jerome K. Jerome

... with the modern prize-ring—whoever has witnessed the heavy and disabling strokes which the human fist, skillfully directed, hath the power to bestow—may easily understand how much that happy facility would be increased by a band carried by thongs of leather round the arm as high as the ...
— The Last Days of Pompeii • Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

... Dutch enemy did not discontinue coming to the coasts of Manila, where they robbed the Chinese and did all the harm possible. They tried to capture the ships carrying aid [from Mexico], so that without war they were growing rich, and disabling the people of Manila. In this emergency the pilots carried sealed orders, which they were to open on the return voyage and learn the port where they had to go, thus defeating the designs of the Dutch enemy, and freeing themselves ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXIV, 1630-34 • Various

... three years ago, the writer was struck down by paralysis, disabling entirely the limbs of the left side. In this apparently helpless state, I employed a man to take care of me, and felt that unless God should interpose, I must be a continuous burden on my friends. My kind physician gave me no ...
— The Wonders of Prayer - A Record of Well Authenticated and Wonderful Answers to Prayer • Various

... year 1887 it became apparent that the Civil War and the Minnesota Indian War had left a large number of soldiers of the state in dependent circumstances from old age, wounds and other disabling causes. The state, recognizing its obligation to these men, determined to provide a home for their comfort and maintenance. By an act of the legislature, passed March 2d of that year, provision was made for the purchase of a site and the erection of suitable buildings for that purpose. The act ...
— The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier • Charles E. Flandrau

... so accurate that the gunboats were obliged to take new positions. Shortly after the cannonade began, a shot from the fort struck one of Captain Mower's thirty-two pounders in the muzzle and disabled it; but he kept up his fire through the day, dismounting three guns in the lower fort and disabling two of the gunboats. Nearly all of the shells from the Rebel batteries fell harmlessly into the soft earth. There were very few of General Pope's men injured. They soon became accustomed to the business, and paid but little attention to the screaming of the shot and the explosions ...
— My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field • Charles Carleton Coffin

... moment Mrs. Colonel Poyntz thus issued the word of command, Dr. Lloyd was demolished. His practice was gone, as well as his repute. Mortification or anger brought on a stroke of paralysis which, disabling my opponent, put an end to our controversy. An obscure Dr. Jones, who had been the special pupil and protege of Dr. Lloyd, offered himself as a candidate for the Hill's tongues and pulses. The Hill gave him little ...
— A Strange Story, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... that the boy found out that the legislature, being aware that the Constitution has made America, an asylum for the poor and the oppressed of all nations, and that, therefore, the poor and oppressed who fly to our shelter must not be charged a disabling admission fee, made a law that every Chinaman, upon landing, must be vaccinated upon the wharf, and pay to the state's appointed officer ten dollars for the service, when there are plenty of doctors in San Francisco who would be glad enough to do it ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner's authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing, or in replacing the removed material or ceasing to ...
— Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code, Circular 92 • Library of Congress. Copyright Office.

... and whipped the tell-tale garment from its bush. Just as he seized it another shot came, striking the gun in front, entirely disabling the weapon, and then bounding off. When the men, hastily scattered by the mishap, looked for the lieutenant, he was observed lying in ...
— With Marlborough to Malplaquet • Herbert Strang and Richard Stead

... having urged his team to their utmost, now fed them carefully and locked them up in his shed, a local habit providing against bloody fights that were objected to not so much on moral principle as because these contests often resulted in the disabling of valuable animals. It also prevented incursions among the few sheep of the neighborhood or long hunts in which dogs indulged by themselves, returning with sore feet and utterly unable to move for a day or two. The animals, before falling asleep, were biting off the crackling icicles ...
— The Peace of Roaring River • George van Schaick

... L. F. Ross, and the 12th and 17th regiments of Missouri infantry, from Sherman's corps, as (p. 377) sharpshooters on the gunboats, succeeded in reaching Coldwater on the 2d day of March, after much difficulty, and the partial disabling of most of the boats. From the entrance into Coldwater to Fort Pemberton, at Greenwood, Mississippi, no great difficulty of navigation was experienced nor any interruption of magnitude from the enemy. Fort Pemberton extends from the Tallahatchie ...
— The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876 • J. F. Loubat

... immediate removal to a Paradise of unlimited houris and copious sherbet. There are no braver men than Russian soldiers; but going into action against the Turks tried their nerves, not because they feared the Turks as antagonists, but because they knew too well that a petty wound disabling from retreat meant not alone death but ...
— Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places • Archibald Forbes

... another by cutting out or disabling the tongue or any other member or limb; inveigling or kidnapping; decoying and taking away children; exposing children in the street to abandon them; committing or attempting an assault with intent to kill, ...
— The Government Class Book • Andrew W. Young

... by appearances and smart propaganda. As a geneticist I can only go so far and be honest. I can make sure you have good heredity; that you have no obvious physical or mental defects; that your chance of having certain disabling diseases are small; that your intelligence is high, and so on. I can't really measure things such as initiative, wit, courage, determination, all the things that make one human so much better than another of equal ...
— Mother America • Sam McClatchie

... to five miles of the front line, and in certain places for many miles beyond. If it never killed a man, the reduction in physical vigour, and, therefore, in efficiency of an army forced at all times to wear masks, would amount to at least 25 per cent., equivalent to disabling a quarter of a million men out of an army ...
— by Victor LeFebure • J. Walker McSpadden

... did not need to be told that the bold Frenchman must in some way have succeeded in disabling all the units of that battery when he hurled his bomb over the redoubt. Perhaps that terrific crash may have been an ammunition supply exploding and scattering the guns right ...
— The Big Five Motorcycle Boys on the Battle Line - Or, With the Allies in France • Ralph Marlow

... saw my Lord Keeling go into the House to the bar, to have his business heard by the whole House to-day; and a great crowd of people to stare upon him. Here I hear that the Lord's Bill for banishing and disabling my Lord Clarendon from bearing any office, or being in the King's dominions, and it being made felony for any to correspond with him but his own children, is brought to the Commons; but they will not agree to it, being not satisfied with that as sufficient, but will have ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... the people,—declaring distinctly, strongly, and precisely, that the whole danger of the nation was from the growth of the power of the crown. The policy of this declaration was obvious. It was in subservience to the general plan of disabling us from taking any steps against France. To counteract the alarm given by the progress of Jacobin arms and principles, he endeavored to excite an opposite alarm concerning the growth of the power of the crown. If that alarm should prevail, he ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. V. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... knowledge, through manly and womanly endeavor, have caught a sight of a Christendom passing away, of a religion of sorrow declining, of a gospel preached for the poor no longer useful to a world that is mastering its own problems of poverty and lifting itself out of disabling misery into wealth without angelic assistance. This is our consolation; and while we admit, clearly and frankly, the real power of the popular faith, we also see the pillars on which a new faith rests, which shall be a faith, not of sorrow, but of joy." Now, the deepest sorrow ...
— The world's great sermons, Volume 8 - Talmage to Knox Little • Grenville Kleiser

... turned to mischievous influences as is an interregnum in a monarchy—by which there is a lapse of four months between the election and the inauguration of our Chief Magistrate. A retiring functionary may work and plan and provide an immense amount of disabling, annoying, and damaging experience to be encountered by his successor. That successor may at a distance, or close at hand, be an observer of all this influence; but whether it be simply of a partisan or of a malignant character, he is powerless to resist it, and good taste ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, Issue 49, November, 1861 • Various

... types of wounded. One type so nervous, that it drops the moment it is struck, whether the wound is disabling or not. Another so nerveless, that it fights on, unconscious that it has been hit. A third, who, feeling the wound, goes on fighting, sustained by its nerve. It is over the latter sort that the surgeons shake their heads and ...
— The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him • Paul Leicester Ford

... be left, but was subsequently brought off. The guns were spiked and rammed with wads and balls, the spokes and felloes of the wheels were cut, the trails hacked to pieces, and all the ordinary means of disabling a battery had been resorted to. The task of reconstructing this ruined battery was undertaken, and, after much ...
— Memories - A Record of Personal Experience and Adventure During Four Years of War • Fannie A. (Mrs.) Beers

... harm. It is all a matter of statistics, not of generalisation. Take your three statements. 'It is good for a nation to have a war.' You mean, I suppose, that, in spite of the loss of the best stock and the disabling of strong young men, and the disintegration of families, and the hideous waste of time and money—subtracting all that—there is a balance of good ...
— Father Payne • Arthur Christopher Benson

... very spirited manner from a battery on an eminence. Davis's militia worked it and succeeded in disabling the most dangerous of the enemy's gunboats and ...
— Elsie's Vacation and After Events • Martha Finley

... already mentioned the circumstances of my Third Brigade's advance across the ford, where in the brief space of ten minutes it lost its brave commander (killed) and the next two ranking officers by disabling wounds. Yet, in spite of these confusing conditions the formations were effected without hesitation, although under a stinging fire, companies acting singly in some instances, and by battalion and regiments in others, rushing through the jungle, across the stream waist deep, ...
— The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions, • Murat Halstead

... have one's hour, or day, or week, of disabling the editor's judgment, of calling him to one's self fool, and rogue, and wretch; but after that, if one is worth while at all, one puts the rejected thing by, or sends it off to some other magazine, and sets about the capture of the erring ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... effects of the application of the caustic. The first is that, in cases in which there would be much and long continued irritability and pain, as in superficial wounds along the shin, all this suffering, and its consequences in disabling the patient, are completely avoided. A blush of inflammation forms around the eschar, but this gradually subsides without any disagreeable consequences, and the inflammation which would otherwise have been set up is entirely prevented by the due ...
— An Essay on the Application of the Lunar Caustic in the Cure of Certain Wounds and Ulcers • John Higginbottom

... Holmes, of this county, and some of his friends, were in pursuit of a runaway slave (the property of Mr. Holmes) and fell in with him in attempting to make his escape. Mr. H. discharged a gun at his legs, for the purpose of disabling him; but unfortunately, the slave stumbled, and the shot struck him near the small of the back, of which wound he died in a short time. The slave continued to run some distance after he was shot, until overtaken by one of the party. We are satisfied, ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... evils of dram-drinking, but it is evident, that where this practice prevails universally, and often to the most frightful excess, the consequence must be, that the money spent to obtain the dram is less than the money lost by the time consumed in drinking it. Long, disabling, and expensive fits of sickness are incontestably more frequent in every part of America, than in England, and the sufferers have no aid to look to, but what they have saved, or what they may be enabled to sell. I have never seen misery exceed what I have witnessed in an American ...
— Domestic Manners of the Americans • Fanny Trollope

... which the Spaniards were sore amazed not knowing how to escape the danger, and fearing the English had more fire-arms than they actually possessed. Others of the crew laid manfully about among the Spaniards with their lances and boar-spears, disabling two or three of the Spaniards at every stroke. Then some of the Spaniards urged Mr Foster to command his men to lay down their arms and surrender; but he told them that the English were so courageous in the defence of their lives and liberties, that it was not in his power ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VII • Robert Kerr

... themselves by the pretensions of superior sanctity speak of this murder as the hand of God doing justice." They went by the precedent of the murder of Archbishop Sharp, it appears. In the Lords (February 1737) a Bill was passed for disabling the Provost—one Wilson—for public employment, destroying the Town Charter, abolishing the Town Guard, and throwing down the gate of the Nether Bow. Argyll opposed the Bill; in the Commons all Scottish members were against it; Walpole gave way. Wilson was dismissed, ...
— A Short History of Scotland • Andrew Lang

... dropped to the ground, discharging as it fell, but harmlessly. And then the outlaw, with a yell of rage, gripped his right hand in his left. For Snake had fired at the man's trigger member, thus disabling him ...
— The Boy Ranchers Among the Indians - or, Trailing the Yaquis • Willard F. Baker

... when England rightfully boasted the best? But not only were these Leyden leaders not guilty of any laches as indicted by Arber and too readily convicted by Griffis, but the "overmasting" was of small account as compared with the deliberate rascality of captain and crew, in the disabling of the consort, as expressly certified by Bradford, who certainly, as an eye-witness, ...
— The Mayflower and Her Log, Complete • Azel Ames

... water at once and supply the excretory ducts, which will at the first pulsation of the heart throw water upon the consuming fire, and extinguish it by uniting oxygen with hydrogen, and cover the burning building with water by disabling the power of phosphorous and oxygen from uniting and keeping ...
— Philosophy of Osteopathy • Andrew T. Still

... and with his own hands put it hard aweather, to give the deck guns one more chance, the last, of sinking or disabling the Destroyer. As the ship obeyed, and a deck gun bellowed below him, he saw a vessel running out from Long Island, and coming swiftly ...
— Great Sea Stories • Various

... great injuries unto others, yet without taking away their lives, in such a case the Law adjudges the offender who commits a mayhem to the severest penalties. The true definition of a mayhem is such a hurt whereby a man is rendered less able in fighting, so that cutting off or disabling a man's hand, striking out his eye, or foretooth, were mayhems at Common Law. But by the Statute of King Charles the Second, if any person or persons, with malice aforethought, by lying in wait, unlawfully cut out or disable the tongue, ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward

... that, but for the Bible and Christianity, he has not the slightest reason to believe that there would have been at this moment a hospital in London to receive him and his in the hour of sickness or disabling accident, and to lavish on him there, unpaid as the light and air of God outside, every resource of science, care, generosity, and tenderness, simply because he is a human being. Yes; truly catholic are these hospitals,—catholic as the bounty of ...
— The Water of Life and Other Sermons • Charles Kingsley



Words linked to "Disabling" :   unhealthful, enabling, incapacitating, disqualifying, crippling



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