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Debility   /dəbˈɪləti/   Listen
Debility

noun
1.
The state of being weak in health or body (especially from old age).  Synonyms: feebleness, frailness, frailty, infirmity, valetudinarianism.






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"Debility" Quotes from Famous Books



... rolled up in their coverings. Were they asleep? As for me, I could not get one moment's sleep. I was suffering too keenly, and what embittered my thoughts was that there was no remedy. My uncle's last words echoed painfully in my ears: "it's all over!" For in such a fearful state of debility it was madness to think of ever ...
— A Journey to the Interior of the Earth • Jules Verne

... bleach, the goats are dry, Lisbon quakes, the people cry. Yon pale, scrawny fisher fools, Gaunt as bitterns in the pools, Are no brothers of my blood;— They discredit Adamhood. Eyes of gods! ye must have seen, O'er your ramparts as ye lean, The general debility; Of genius the sterility; Mighty projects countermanded; Rash ambition, brokenhanded; Puny man and scentless rose Tormenting Pan to double the dose. Rebuild or ruin: either fill Of vital force the wasted rill, Or tumble all again in heap To ...
— Poems - Household Edition • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... that his disorder was paralleled by similar disturbances instanced in pathological records, but that the contributing causes were different and that my husband's particular debility was not induced by his devotion to flowers but ...
— The Flaw in the Sapphire • Charles M. Snyder

... There was naught of debility, either of body or of mind, to be read in that figure, and with his fears on that particular point set at rest, for the time being, ...
— The Lost City • Joseph E. Badger, Jr.

... find Dorry still something of an invalid, and made preparations accordingly; but there was no sign of debility in his jump from the carriage or his run up the steps to greet them. He was a little thinner than usual, ...
— In the High Valley - Being the fifth and last volume of the Katy Did series • Susan Coolidge

... of some dark dream seemed now to absorb the senses of the old man. The debility to which sickness had reduced his mental and physical powers, and the overpowering efficacy of a first impression of pleasure and surprise, had entirely banished from his mind the dreadful image of a parent's just ...
— Gomez Arias - The Moors of the Alpujarras, A Spanish Historical Romance. • Joaquin Telesforo de Trueba y Cosio

... dreams, and seem to see or hear in fair reality that which is in our minds, is an old fact, and requires no confirmation. An ignorant or superstitious man fallen into this state, may find good reason to tell ghost stories to his neighbors. Disease, and the debility preceding death, make people on their death-beds very liable to plays of this kind on their failing faculties; and one solemnity or cause of dread, thus being added to another, seems to give the strength of reason ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 • Various

... of iron and alumine in this than in any other mineral water yet discovered: and its medicinal properties are therefore decidedly indicated in the cure of those disorders arising from a relaxed fibre and languid circulation, such as indigestion, flatulency, nervous disorders, and debility from a long residence in ...
— Brannon's Picture of The Isle of Wight • George Brannon

... disease, debility, and defective sight and hearing, in the public elementary schools in poorer districts, is appalling. The research of a recent Royal Commission has disclosed that of the children in the public schools of Edinburgh, 70 per cent, are suffering ...
— The Fertility of the Unfit • William Allan Chapple

... lovers of absolute monarchy. It is the nature of despotism to abhor power held by any means but its own momentary pleasure; and to annihilate all intermediate situations between boundless strength on its own part, and total debility on ...
— Thoughts on the Present Discontents - and Speeches • Edmund Burke

... wide open. Keep them open until winter storms make more protection necessary. During the summer months the pullets have had plenty of fresh air. To bring them into a warm, tightly closed house is to invite general debility and an epidemic of colds, catarrh, roup and other allied diseases. (Pratts Roup Remedy dissolved in the drinking water every few days, especially during changes of weather, will help to ...
— Pratt's Practical Pointers on the Care of Livestock and Poultry • Pratt Food Co.

... was at the time suffering from nervous debility and severe mental depression, the result of over-work and incessant anxiety; and to such a deplorable condition was he reduced that, for a considerable time, he was completely incapacitated ...
— For Treasure Bound • Harry Collingwood

... difference to me, or to my family, where we go, for we have enjoyed this trip so much that none of us were in a hurry to bring it to an end. Mrs. Shepard has entirely recovered from her nervous debility, and I know she will be sorry when we ...
— Up the River - or, Yachting on the Mississippi • Oliver Optic

... exhaustion and debility—nor even the acute pain I was suffering, could prevent my laughing at O'Leary's adventure; and it required all Trevanion's prudence to prevent my indulging too far in ...
— The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete • Charles James Lever (1806-1872)

... though yet weak, free from scorbutic symptoms. Another instance offered in a woman, whom I saw but once. Her gums were spongy and reverted, but not discoloured; her countenance sallow, lips pale, and she suffered under general debility, without local pain or rigidity of the limbs. She remained in this state for a long time, and eventually, as the weather improved, ...
— Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage • William Edward Parry

... quantity. Mr. Burns asserts that in these cases the milk 'does not become hurtful,' but in this opinion I must beg leave to differ from him; since I have repeatedly seen it, from this cause, palpably altered in appearance, and have observed diarrh[oe]a and great debility produced in the children who ...
— Remarks on the Subject of Lactation • Edward Morton

... be cautious of bleeding in distemper fits. I should be fearful of it even in an early stage, because I well know that the acute form of that general mucous inflammation soon passes over, and is succeeded by a debility, from the depression of which I cannot always rouse my patient. When the fits proceed from dentition, I lance the jaws, and give an emetic, and follow it up with cooling purgative medicine. When they are caused by irregular ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... same line with the remedies just mentioned, have been placed bleeding, general and local, though as we apprehend, very erroneously. There is not in bleeding as in purging, conflicting and alternating effects of debility from evacuation, and irritation, primary and sympathetic, from local stimulation; but a direct diminution of morbid action, more tranquil movements of the heart and capillary system, that is of the circulatory apparatus, ...
— North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826 • Various

... A debility and dimness of the imaginative power, and a consequent necessity of reliance on the immediate impressions of the senses, do, we know well, render the mind liable to superstition and fanaticism. Having a deficient portion of internal and proper warmth, minds of this class ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... running out in the cold and damp to have their fortunes told by night, or in the grey of the morning. If a fortune-teller promised long life, all the warnings of the doctor went for nothing. Then, again, the people mistook the oppression which was one of the first symptoms of the fever, for debility; and before the doctor was sent for, or in defiance of his directions, the patient was plied with strong drinks, and his case rendered desperate from the beginning. Mr Walcot had complained that the odds were really too much against him, ...
— Deerbrook • Harriet Martineau

... him, that from that time he began to make strong and earnest efforts to control the natural impetuosity of his temper; and he finally attained to a remarkable degree of self-control. Weary hours of debility brought wiser thoughts to Samson also; and when he recovered his strength, he never again misused it by abusing ...
— Isaac T. Hopper • L. Maria Child

... for eight or ten days, but had finally to succumb. One evening as she sat alone in her chamber, the forces of nature suddenly gave way, she fell heavily to the floor in a swoon, and was carried to her bed in the arms of her father. The physician treated her at first as for a case of mere physical debility, resultant on her long watches during the eight weeks of Singleton's illness, and the extreme anxiety she had experienced for the safety of her friend. But when the malady remained obstinate to his prescriptions, ...
— The Bastonnais - Tale of the American Invasion of Canada in 1775-76 • John Lesperance

... me that on stimulants, domestic and other, this school of Physicians relied with an unalterable confidence. For a delicate child, a glass of port wine at 11 was the inevitable prescription, and a tea-spoonful of bark was often added to this generous tonic. In all forms of languor and debility and enfeebled circulation, brandy-and-water was "exhibited," as the phrase went; and, if the dose was not immediately successful, the brandy was increased. I myself, when a sickly boy of twelve, was ordered by a well-known practitioner, ...
— Fifteen Chapters of Autobiography • George William Erskine Russell

... effects of alcohol on the cellular tissue of the brain—Opinions of high scientific authorities against its use—No need of resorting to stimulants either for refreshment, nourishment, or pleasure—Tea and coffee an extensive cause of much nervous debility and suffering—Tend to wasteful use in the kitchen—Are seldom agreeable at first to children—Are dangerous to sensitive, nervous organizations, and should be at least regulated—Hot drinks unwholesome, debilitating, and destructive to teeth, ...
— The American Woman's Home • Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe

... universal attention, he recognised, by the fair and streaming hair, and half exposed bosom, the unfortunate being whom, only two hours previously, he had spurned from his feet in the costume of her own sex, and reduced, by the violence of her grief, to almost infantine debility. Question succeeded question to those around, but without eliciting any clue to the means by which this mysterious disguise had been effected. No one had been aware, until the truth was so singularly and suddenly revealed, the supposed drummer was any other ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson

... their generative organs in youth by self-abuse, and if they survive and marry, their children will have small bones, small frames and sickly constitutions. It is therefore not strange that instinct should lead women to admire men not touched with these symptoms of physical debility. ...
— Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners • B.G. Jefferis

... the shock as nicely as on a battleship, with no tremble of the base set in the debris of a village. He shakes his head, this preoccupied mechanician. It may be necessary to call in the gun doctor. His "how" has been in service a long time, but is not yet showing the signs of general debility of the eight-inch battery near by. They have fired three times their allowance and are still good for sundry purposes in the gunner-general's play of red and black pins on his map. The life of guns has ...
— My Second Year of the War • Frederick Palmer

... then, he was now a mere shadow by comparison. The change had been more marked and rapid during the last few weeks. He had seemed to fade gradually away, growing daily weaker and weaker, until at last a knowledge of his increasing debility forced itself upon the not very observant faculties of his companions—coming rather as a sense of indefinable uneasiness on his behalf than any actual apprehension of his real condition. His great ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 86, February, 1875 • Various

... hand had the power to wield and employ the implements of toil. The progress of the settlement towards maturity was necessarily retarded; and the operations which proceeded, at these periods of general debility, were compelled to move with a slowness which afforded but a faint promise of speedy perfection. Under this combination of disadvantages, it affords proof of no common perseverance to find, that the settlement had been scarcely ...
— The Present Picture of New South Wales (1811) • David Dickinson Mann

... could tell you how many legs are flourished by the house-spider, and was thoroughly versed in the anatomy of the common gnat. This pursuit, or science as he called it, engrossed his whole attention. It was fortunate he had such an absorbing occupation, inasmuch as his general debility prevented his entering into any amusement out of doors. His wife and he seemed to understand ...
— Kate Coventry - An Autobiography • G. J. Whyte-Melville

... my fears and the horror of the scene, I had no longer any feeling of cold, or sense of debility. I ran to the door, shut it, and finding a fork that stood beside it made as good a cross bar-fastening as I was able. I then resolutely set my own shoulder to it, and there remained, I know not how long, in momentary dread the murderer would return. The woman's groans seemed to diminish, as if ...
— The Adventures of Hugh Trevor • Thomas Holcroft

... "'Nervous debility has rendered you superstitious, Cornelius. I have no faith in the religious cant of the present day, in ...
— The Monctons: A Novel, Volume I • Susanna Moodie

... do nothing more on the present occasion. Having heard so much of Trevelyan's debility, he had been astonished to hear the man speak with so much volubility and attempts at high-flown spirit. Before he had taken the wine he had almost sunk into his chair, but still he had continued to speak with the same fluent would-be ...
— He Knew He Was Right • Anthony Trollope

... identity, shewed from oral testimony, that they sometimes appeared as a glazed pipkin, and sometimes as the skeleton of a horse's head. The exertion of endeavouring to enlighten wilful absurdity increased the debility of De Vallance. Jobson's forebodings were turned into certainties, and he walked into the church-yard to see in what spot he should bury his master, and hoping to hear the death-watch, as a sign that he ...
— The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 - An Historical Novel • Jane West

... previous indisposition, was seized with a chill and other symptoms of fever. The next day pneumonia, with congestion of the liver and derangement of the stomach and bowels, was ascertained to exist. The age and debility of the patient, with the immediate prostration, forbade a resort to general blood letting. Topical depletion, blistering, and appropriate internal remedies subdued in a great measure the disease of the lungs and liver, but the stomach and intestines did not regain ...
— Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Harrison • James D. Richardson

... believed to refer to the eighth day after full term; thus, a child born prematurely is not supposed to be circumcised until eight days after it would have reached its full term, and only then if its general good condition is settled. Maimonides looked upon infantile jaundice, general debility, and marasmus as contra-indications to the performance of the rite; any erysipelatous inflammation, ophthalmia, anaemia, eruption of any kind, fever, tendency to convulsive movements—in fact, any observable departure ...
— History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present - Moral and Physical Reasons for its Performance • Peter Charles Remondino

... Alexander. "But these cases of extreme debility cause so much perplexity. Where there is no particular disease to treat, and the patient does not ...
— Elster's Folly • Mrs. Henry Wood

... untidy cravat, his rumpled shirt, were signs of the want of personal care with which men of science, all more or less absent-minded, are charged. As in the case of most thinkers, his countenance and his attitude, the development of his bust and the thinness of his legs, betrayed a sort of bodily debility produced by habits of meditation. Nevertheless, the ardor of his heart and the vigor of his mind, proofs of which were given in this letter, gleamed from his forehead, which was white as Carrara marble. Nature seemed to have reserved to herself that spot in order to place there ...
— The Village Rector • Honore de Balzac

... My chest having now become very painful and weak, in consequence of so much reading aloud, as I was obliged to do on a somewhat poor diet, I was compelled to enter the hospital a second time, suffering from severe general debility accompanied by a cough, after having been about thirteen months in the prison. On my admission I received a change of diet and tonic medicines. For some weeks I was confined to bed, and not till six months had elapsed was ...
— Six Years in the Prisons of England • A Merchant - Anonymous

... Pekinese devour it with relish; others will not touch it, but there is no doubt it is a useful item in the bill of fare. Bread well soaked in very strong stock, sheep's head, and liver are always better as regular diet than meat, but in cases of debility a little raw meat given once a day ...
— Dogs and All About Them • Robert Leighton

... were frequently much more severe; for the Pere Abbe had instituted more austere regulations than formerly, with the only one exception, of the sick being allowed medicines; and, in cases of great debility, a small ...
— A Visit to the Monastery of La Trappe in 1817 • W.D. Fellowes

... indispensable method for sustaining life. It is right that we should eat and drink; and the pleasure which accompanies the proper performance of the function is the reflex approval of the Creator. The refusal fitly to take and relish our food brings debility, disease, pain, and premature death. Whether this refusal results from absorption in other employment or from some superstitious belief, it is a violation of the will of our Maker, and the consequent ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... cuts through, the city, wreathed in smoke, and a great oceanic stretch of roofs are in easy view, and at closer range, an outlying section of public asylums for the city's discard of its debility and ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1917 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... was caused by erysipelas, brought on by debility; after an illness of two weeks the disease yielded to medical treatment, and he seemed to gain strength rapidly. On Saturday, the 31st of July, he joined a party of friends and drove in his buggy twenty miles ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin

... are general and digestive debility resulting from the feeding of an insufficient or unsuitable ration, and general and parasitic diseases of the intestine. Nervous, well-bred horses are most susceptible to nervous ...
— Common Diseases of Farm Animals • R. A. Craig, D. V. M.

... theatres, and, if possible, to stay all night on the pretence of waiting for the early edition of the great dailies. If a boy is once thoroughly caught in these excitements, nothing can save him from over-stimulation and consequent debility and worthlessness; he arrives at maturity with no habits of regular work and with ...
— Democracy and Social Ethics • Jane Addams

... these homes surrounded by ample yards, thickly clad with green grass, and shaded by tall trees, through whose dense foliage the sun could scarcely penetrate; in place of the customary geranium, calla lily, etc., languishing in dust and general debility, I saw luxurious banks and thickets of flowers, fresh as a meadow after a rain, and glowing with the richest dyes; in place of the dingy horrors of San Francisco's pleasure grove, the "Willows," I saw huge-bodied, wide-spreading forest trees, with ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... poor stuff. The Month at Malvern is disfigured by similar faults of style; but Mr. Lane has really something to tell us in that work: and there is a good deal of interest at once in knowing how a man who had been reduced to the last degree of debility of body and mind, was so effectually restored, that now for years he has, on occasion, proved himself equal to a forty-miles' walk among the Welsh mountains on a warm summer day; and also in remarking the boyish ...
— The Recreations of A Country Parson • A. K. H. Boyd

... for the address which had been written for her by a well-known and talented amateur of the drama—arose not merely from the emotion natural on a farewell night, after more than half a century of active public service, but also from extreme physical debility, the result of an attack of illness of a wasting character, which had already confined that venerable lady to her bed for many days. In fact, it was only the determination of Mrs. Glover herself not ...
— The International Weekly Miscellany, Volume I. No. 8 - Of Literature, Art, and Science, August 19, 1850 • Various

... of this world were as nothing, and he bowed with resignation to the command of the Master he had followed so long with reverence. They symptoms of his attack resembled concussion of the brain, without the attendant swoon. There was marked debility, a slightly impaired consciousness, and a tendency to doze; but no paralysis of motion or sensation, and no evidence of suffering or inflammation of the brain. His physicians treated the case as one of venous congestion, and with apparently favourable ...
— Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee • Captain Robert E. Lee, His Son

... "There is an extreme debility, that is all," he went on quite cheerfully; "and if we can induce him to take plenty of nourishment, we shall get on ...
— Fenton's Quest • M. E. Braddon

... the roof. This pot was half full of mealies already cooked, and which he simply meant to warm for his supper. The remainder of his week's ration of meat (the skinny ribs of a goat that had died of debility down near his master's homestead) was also hanging from the roof, but with a sigh he determined to reserve that delicacy for the morrow, remembering that two days would elapse before a fresh supply was due. His dog, Sibi—a ...
— Kafir Stories - Seven Short Stories • William Charles Scully

... several times to orders, statements, and certificates; depriving Englishmen of their liberty and their property with a gesture of her taper fingers; and venting the conventional terms, "Aberration," "Exaltation," "Depression," "Debility," "Paralysis," "Excitable," "Abnormal," as boldly and blindly as any ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... suddenly appeared; and, being apprized of what was inside the box, insisted on its being opened. The papers were at once confiscated, and were never given back. Their loss caused the boy a serious shock, which, combining with debility of longer standing, brought on a malady that necessitated his leaving the school. The Principal himself advised the removal. In 1813, between Easter and prize distribution, he wrote to Madame Balzac asking her to come immediately and fetch her son away. The lad, he explained, was prostrated by ...
— Balzac • Frederick Lawton

... on some particular teacher, which makes up for everything else. The efficacy which is thus ascribed to faith, and the facility with which sin may be expiated by penance, have led to great mental debility and superstition. Force has been added to the doctrine of a material paradise of trees, flowers, banquets, hymns; and to a hell, a dismal place of flames, thirst, ...
— History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2) - Revised Edition • John William Draper

... with courage revived and spirits refreshed: physical debility no longer enervated my judgment; my ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... of sedentary, professional habits, persons of a very nervous temperament, or those subject to much excitement in business and politics, sometimes show debility and languor, or agitation and nervousness, while they smoke and chew. Are there no other causes at work, sufficient in themselves to produce these effects? Are want of exercise, want of air, want of rest, and want of inherited vigor to be eliminated from the ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 34, August, 1860 • Various

... all other matters of like character. Power is tacitly committed to the leading chief, to be held so long as he governs to general satisfaction, subject, however, to the advice of the soldiers. Age, debility, or any other natural defect, or incapacity to act, advise, or command, would lead a chief to resign in favor of ...
— Siouan Sociology • James Owen Dorsey

... visit to the infirmary we found 5 patients in bed or crouched in the oriental manner upon their bedsteads; 1 suffering from senile paralysis, 2 from bronchitis, 1 from inflammation of the ears, and 1 from general debility. ...
— Turkish Prisoners in Egypt - A Report By The Delegates Of The International Committee - Of The Red Cross • Various

... can hardly at the present day understand how any person who would care to consult the book at all would find any difficulty with words like the following, 'acrimony', 'austere', 'bulb', 'consolidate', 'debility', 'dose', 'ingredient', 'opiate', 'propitious', 'symptom', all which, however, as novelties he carefully explains. Some of the words in his glossary, it is true, are harder and more technical than these; but a vast proportion of them present no greater ...
— English Past and Present • Richard Chenevix Trench

... order to shun houses, the lights from which might have tempted the drenched and hungry soldiers to stray, and take shelter. Then the hardy and energetic general of his matchless forces first felt the effects of this laborious march in unusual debility, ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume III. • Mrs. Thomson

... reverse takes place, and the demand be suddenly increased, the result is weakness, debility, and finally disease; though precisely the same amount of work might have been done, not only with safety but with positive advantage, provided the increase of the demand had ...
— The Education of American Girls • Anna Callender Brackett

... his recovery. In fact, he feared that his unhappy patient had not many days to live. He ordered him wine, tonics, and light but nutritious food to be taken sparingly, and desired that he should be brought into the open air as often as the debility of his constitution could bear it. His complaint, he said, was altogether a nervous one, and resulted from the effects of cruelty, terror, want of sufficient nourishment, bad air, ...
— The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... transpiring between the idiot boy and the slave, the Sultan had been talking with Mustapha concerning the latter. It seemed by his story that she had been very ill since she was brought from her native valley, and that she was hardly yet recovered from the debility that had followed her sickness. She would not write nor read one word of either the Turkish or Circassian tongue, and therefore could only express herself by signs; for which reason, neither those who sold her nor the purchaser knew aught of her ...
— The Circassian Slave; or, The Sultan's Favorite - A Story of Constantinople and the Caucasus • Lieutenant Maturin Murray

... Controller-General." "You have a spite against him," said Madame, "because he would not grant what you asked." "That is true," said he, "but though that might possibly incline me to tell a disagreeable truth, it would not make me invent one. He is losing his intellects from debility. He affects gallantry at his age, and I perceive the connection in his ideas is becoming feeble and irregular." The King laughed; but three months afterwards he came to Madame, saying, "Sechelles gives evident proofs of dotage in the Council. We must appoint a successor to him." Madame ...
— Memoirs And Historical Chronicles Of The Courts Of Europe - Marguerite de Valois, Madame de Pompadour, and Catherine de Medici • Various

... blockade achieves its ends by more refined and leisurely means: one is not shocked by the unseemly sights of a battlefield, and the wielder of the weapon has time to watch its effects as they develop: he can see the victim going through the successive stages of misery—debility, languor, exhaustion—until the final point is reached; and as his scientific curiosity is gratified by the gradual manifestation of the various symptoms, so his moral sense is fortified by the struggle between a proud spirit ...
— Greece and the Allies 1914-1922 • G. F. Abbott

... first night within a few miles of New Haven, and as he passed through that town the next morning, the scenes of early life in which he had there been an actor, moved in melancholy succession over his mind. That day he grew more indisposed; he experienced an unusual languor, listlessness and debility; chills, followed by hot flashes, heavy pains in the head and back, with incessant and intolerable thirst. It was near night when he reached Killingsworth, where he halted, as he felt unable to go farther: he called for a bed, and through ...
— Alonzo and Melissa - The Unfeeling Father • Daniel Jackson, Jr.

... year of his age. His goodness and virtue were not duly appreciated by his country, principally from his having, until almost the close of his life, been associated with Cosmo, and the few years he survived being spent in civil discord and constant debility. Piero was buried in the church of St. Lorenzo, near his father, and his obsequies were performed with all the pomp and solemnity due to his exalted station. He left two sons, Lorenzo and Guiliano, whose extreme ...
— History Of Florence And Of The Affairs Of Italy - From The Earliest Times To The Death Of Lorenzo The Magnificent • Niccolo Machiavelli

... are such women, in short, as our mothers, fifty years ago, might have been. I had not observed any particular appearance of health in the females of the country through which I had passed; on the contrary, I had been disappointed in their general pallidness and look of debility. I inquired of my host if there was any cause to which this ...
— Letters of a Traveller - Notes of Things Seen in Europe and America • William Cullen Bryant

... which corruption has risen in any of the nations that have attained to eminence, or that have gone to decay; but to describe that remissness of spirit, that weakness of soul, that state of national debility, which is likely to end in political slavery; an evil which remains to be considered as the last object of caution, and beyond which there is no subject of disquisition, in the perishing fortunes ...
— An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Eighth Edition • Adam Ferguson, L.L.D.

... on Saturday, where Lord Sefton is sinking to the grave in a miserable state of depression and mental debility. Up by the railroad and dined at Holland House for the first time for above a year; sat next to Lord FitzGerald at dinner, who lamented to me the loss of the Corporation Bill; he said he would not have consented to the lesser qualification, but would have agreed to all the other clauses ...
— The Greville Memoirs (Second Part) - A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852 - (Volume 1 of 3) • Charles C. F. Greville

... rolled away, and the poor boy became insane through mental exhaustion and debility. But even then he retained a lively sense of gratitude for every word or act of kindness. At one time, the inhuman wretch who was endeavoring by slow torture to conduct this child to the grave, ...
— Maria Antoinette - Makers of History • John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott

... physician, Count Belchigen, attributed the discovery of a number of new diseases to the debility born of daily tea-drinking. Dr. Paulli denied that it had either taste or fragrance, owing its reputation entirely to the peculiar vessels and water used by the Chinese, so that it was folly to partake of it, ...
— The Little Tea Book • Arthur Gray

... natural barrenness, is debility in copulation. If persons perform not that act with all the bent and ardour that nature requires, they may as well let it alone; for frigidity and coldness never produces conception. Of the cure of this we will speak by and by, after I have spoken of ...
— The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher • Anonymous

... the American finances, the exhausted state of the country, and the debility of the government, determined Great Britain to persevere in offensive war against the United States, by keeping alive her hopes of conquest, Europe assumed an aspect not less formidable to the permanent grandeur of that nation, than hostile to its present ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 3 (of 5) • John Marshall

... led into debility by a too great exercise of his mental faculties, it prescribes fresh air, ...
— The Physiology of Taste • Brillat Savarin

... a headache and painful tension of the epigastric region, with alternate sensations of heat and chilliness; a fever ensues, the exacerbations of which are extremely severe, and are followed by a mournful debility, more or less injurious even to those accustomed to it, but usually fatal to strangers.” We have conversed with natives and residents who have recovered from repeated attacks of intempérie; foreigners ...
— Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia - with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. • Thomas Forester

... furious, a stupor, convulsions, and death. A fine drink this stramonium? Sugar of lead is what is called a cumulative poison; having the quality of remaining in the system when taken in small quantities, and piling itself up, as it were, until there is enough to accomplish something, when it causes debility, paralysis, and other things. Sulphuric acid is strongly corrosive,—a powerful caustic, attacking the teeth, even when very dilute; eating up flesh and bones alike when strong enough; and, if taken in a large enough dose, an awfully tearing ...
— The Humbugs of the World • P. T. Barnum

... certain cases, and weak in all others; in time of warfare, it is to be able to concentrate all the forces of the nation and all the resources of the country in its hands; and in time of peace its existence is to be scarcely perceptible: as if this alternate debility and vigor were natural ...
— American Institutions and Their Influence • Alexis de Tocqueville et al

... that the limb remains incapable of bearing weight or otherwise performing its functions. The normal period required for union may be extended from various causes. The most important of these is general debility, but the presence of rickets or tuberculosis, or an intercurrent acute infectious disease, may delay the reparative process. The influence of syphilis, except in its gummatous form, in interfering with union is doubtful. The influence of old ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles

... a long chronic illness the condition of the patient is examined, the question may arise whether the weakening of the fibers and the debility of the organs are the cause of the malady's continuing or the effect of the bad treatment that prolongs its action. The attending physician attributes the entire failure of his skill to the poor constitution of ...
— The Indolence of the Filipino • Jose Rizal

... vanity; at other times, by the earnest supplication of the patients, and the persuasion of his flatterers, to be induced to hope for success. At length he commanded an inquiry to be made by the physicians, whether such a blindness and debility were vincible by human aid. The report of the physicians contained various points: that in the one, the power of vision was not destroyed, but would return if the obstacles were removed; that in the other, the diseased joints might be restored, if a healing power ...
— Evidences of Christianity • William Paley

... perpetrated upon those of kindred origin, religion, and descent. The spirit of independence engendered by this system of feudality and unresisted oppression could only lead to one result—viz. the increase of local at the expense of the central authority. The increasing debility of the paternal government tended to strengthen the power of the provincial Magnates; and the Beys, the Spahis, and the Timariots, stars of lesser magnitude in their way, could not but be expected to adhere to the cause of the all-powerful Kapetans rather ...
— Herzegovina - Or, Omer Pacha and the Christian Rebels • George Arbuthnot

... unfortunately found it impossible to ignore, it was their sweetest relaxation to give themselves up entirely to the remembrance of the old regime, and when they spoke of this era, they forgot their age and debility, and were once more the young roues of the oeil ...
— Queen Hortense - A Life Picture of the Napoleonic Era • L. Muhlbach

... persons suffering severe paroxysms of pain over that of persons suffering from nervous debility has often been remarked upon, and attributed to the enjoyment of the former of their intervals of respite. I incline to think that the majority of cheerful cases is to be found among those patients who are not confined to one room, whatever their suffering, and that the majority of depressed ...
— Notes on Nursing - What It Is, and What It Is Not • Florence Nightingale

... overlifted, and following this he developed an extreme deformity of the spine and trunk, the latter "telescoping into itself" until the nipples were on a level with the anterior superior spines of the ilium. For two years he suffered with debility, fatigue, bronchitis, night-sweats, headache, and great thirst. Mentally he was dull; the bones of the face and extremities showed the hypertrophies characteristic of acromegaly, the soft parts not being involved. The circumference of the trunk at the nipples was 62 inches, and over ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... the above amount if I fail to prove that I have the best remedy in the world for the speedy and permanent cure of *Indigestion, Dyspepsia, Biliousness, Liver Complaint, Sick Headache, Nervous Debility* and *Consumption*. I will gladly send a free bottle of this *wonderful* medicine, prepaid, to every reader of this paper, thus giving all sufferers a chance to test its merits, *free of cost*. Over 70,000 testimonial letters on file from living ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XII, Jan. 3, 1891 • Various

... who, unable to remain in their solitude, came all to me for intelligence, for comfort, and for what, alas! I dare not give them—hope. All this, added to my separation from Sarah during my attendance to what I considered my duty, reduced me to a debility, arising from mental exertion, which changed ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat

... river which discharges itself into the head of Meriwethers Bay. no word yet of Sergt. Gass and party. Bratten is verry weak and complains of a pain in the lower part of the back when he moves which I suppose proceeds from debility. I gave him barks and Salt peter. Gibsons fever Still Continues obstinate tho not verry high; we gave him a dose of Dr. Rushes pills which in maney instancis I have found extreamly efficasious in fevers which ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... influence of the conjunction, which was held to be all-potent, as the chief general cause of the Black Plague; and the diseased state of bodies, the corruption of the fluids, debility, obstruction, and so forth, as the especial subordinate causes. By these, according to his opinion, the quality of the air, and of the other elements, was so altered that they set poisonous fluids in motion towards the inward parts of the body, in the same manner as the magnet attracts iron; ...
— The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania • Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker

... Garden at Calcutta, the fourth and final volume appeared with this note regarding the new edition:—"The work was printed from MSS. in the possession of Dr. Carey, and it was carried through the press when he was labouring under the debility of great age...The advanced age of Dr. Carey did not admit of ...
— The Life of William Carey • George Smith

... clearly seeing him. I had never set eyes on him before, so much was certain. He was small, as I have said; I was struck besides with the shocking expression of his face, with his remarkable combination of great muscular activity and great apparent debility of constitution, and—last but not least— with the odd, subjective disturbance caused by his neighbourhood. This bore some resemblance to incipient rigour, and was accompanied by a marked sinking of the pulse. At the time, ...
— Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde • ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

... Environment, Aspects reviewed; Degenerate Families, Life-histories; Dr. Macgregor, Deductions from his Report; Degenerate Stocks imported, Effect of; Environmental Factor, Importance of; Pre-natal and Post-natal Care, Value of; Housing Problem; Relationship of Impaired Nutrition, Debility, and Disease to Impaired Control; Dietetics and Child Welfare; Picture-shows, Effect on Children, and Recommendations; Venereal Disease Committees' Report as to Effect of Syphilis, &c.; Director Division of School Hygiene, Attention drawn to Report; ...
— Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders • W. H. Triggs, Donald McGavin, Frederick Truby King, J. Sands Elliot, Ada G. Patterson, C.E. Matthews

... army to accomplish which military impressment was resorted to in a most offensive degree. Congress was surrounded with difficulties, the several States were callous and dilatory, and affairs generally wore an aspect of debility ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing

... was such, that one of the students, turning to his neighbor, said: "This is the last lecture of our Neander." Immediately after dinner, which he scarcely tasted, his reader came. He dictated on his Church History three hours in succession, repressing by force of will the rising groans, his debility all the while increasing. At 5 o'clock the symptoms of a dangerous illness appeared; but he would not abandon his work. His sister, who came to expostulate with him and warn him against further effort, ...
— Gifts of Genius - A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors • Various

... capital; and in October 1819, he was so entirely prostrated, as to require the use of a wheeled chair. His future career was that of a man of letters. During the interval which elapsed between his commercial reverses and the period of his physical debility, he prepared a novel, which he had early projected, depicting the trials and sufferings of an unbeneficed preacher. This work appeared in 1819, under the title of "Campbell, or the Scottish Probationer," in three volumes; and though published anonymously, soon led to the discovery and reputation ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... liberally supplied, to state, that during a part of that time Mr. Fife had taken so great a dislike to the various antiscorbutics which were administered to him, that he could seldom be induced to use any of them. The disease, in consequence, reduced him to a state of extreme debility, which at length carried him off almost without pain. The Hecla being at the time closely beset, and in a situation of great danger among the shoals off Winter Island, Captain Lyon caused the remains of the deceased to be committed to the sea ...
— Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the • Sir William Edward Parry

... Sometimes the decay begins in the side of the stem of the plant, in which case it should be cut away, and the wound exposed to a dry air. The cause of this decay at the base or in the side of the stems of Cactuses is no doubt debility, which is the result of the absence of some necessary condition when the plants are cultivated in houses or windows in ...
— Cactus Culture For Amateurs • W. Watson

... tolerably educated, retained some taste for classical lore, and would gladly relax, after the drudgery of the school was over, by conning over a few pages of Horace or Juvenal with his usher. A similarity of taste begot kindness, and accordingly he saw Butler's increasing debility with great compassion, roused up his own energies to teaching the school in the morning hours, insisted upon his assistant's reposing himself at that period, and, besides, supplied him with such comforts ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott



Words linked to "Debility" :   cachexia, astheny, softness, frailty, debile, valetudinarianism, infirmity, unfitness, cachexy, frailness, debilitate, wasting, asthenia



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