Infirm

Definitions: Infirm

Infirm

Adjective

1. Confined to bed (by illness).

2. Lacking physical strength or vitality; "a feeble old woman"; "her body looked sapless".

3. Lacking firmness of will or character or purpose; "infirm of purpose; give me the daggers" - Shakespeare.

4. Weak and feeble; "I'm feeling seedy today".

Date "infirm" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Synonyms: Infirm

Synonyms: bedfast (adj), bedrid (adj), bedridden (adj), debilitated (adj), decrepit (adj), enfeebled (adj), feeble (adj), sapless (adj), seedy (adj), sick-abed (adj), weak (adj), weakly (adj). (additional references)

Synonym by domain: feeblest (medicine).

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Cowardice	Weak-minded; infirm of purpose; weak-hearted, fainthearted, chickenhearted, henhearted, lilyhearted, pigeon-hearted; white-livered, lily-livered, milk-livered; milksop, smock-faced; unable to say " bo " to a goose.
Disease	Unsound, unhealthy; sickly, morbid, morbose, healthless, infirm, chlorotic, unbraced. drooping, flagging, lame, crippled, halting.
Irresolution	Adjective: irresolute, infirm of purpose, double-minded, half-hearted; undecided, unresolved, undetermined; shilly-shally; fidgety, tremulous; hesitating; Verb: off one's balance; at a loss; (uncertain).
Vice	Weak, frail, lax, infirm, imperfect; indiscrete; demoralizing, degrading.
Weakness	Languid, poor, infirm; faint, faintish; sickly; (disease); dull, slack, evanid, spent, short-winded, effete; weather-beaten; decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low, pulled down, the worse for wear.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Infirm

English words defined with "infirm": broken ♦ Close-stool ♦ Doddered, doddering, doddery ♦ Firmless ♦ gaga ♦ Infirmly ♦ Little Sisters of the Poor ♦ nursing ♦ senile ♦ Valetudinary ♦ Weak. (references)

Specialty definitions using "infirm": administration durante corporis aut animi vitio ♦ Infirmities. (references)

Etymologies containing "infirm": infirmity ♦ malingerer ♦ unfirm. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Infirm" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses.

Romanian (cripple, crippled, disabled, invalid, lame duck).

Domain	Title
Books	Infirm Glory: Shakespeare and the Renaissance Image of Man (reference) Living with dementia : community care of the elderly mentally infirm (reference) The Caregiver's Manual: A Guide to Helping the Elderly and Infirm (reference) Way of the Cross for Infirm Women (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Catharine Esther Beecher	The delicate and infirm go for sympathy, not to the well and buoyant, but to those who have suffered like themselves.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	He built, at his own expense, a house of refuge, an institution then almost unknown in France, and provided a fund for old and infirm labourers.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Children	Spain	In 1994 the Constitutional Court held that sterilization of the mentally infirm does not constitute a violation of the Constitution. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Ronald Reagan	1981-1989	But our fundamental goals must be to reduce dependency and upgrade the dignity of those who are infirm or disadvantaged.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Infirm" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Infirm" is used about 132 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	132	27,743

Expressions using "infirm": infirm of purpose ♦ old and infirm ♦ the infirm. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "infirm"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		i paqëndrueshëm (changeable, cranky, fickle, fluent, fluid, inconsequential, inconstant, labile, mutable, non-persistent, protean, rocky, soft, tipsy, tottering, unequable, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatile, waggly, wayward), i pafuqishëm (emasculate, feeble, peaky, weak), i grisur (decrepit, dilapidated, lacerate, ramshackle, rickety, threadbare), i dobët (anaemic, anemic, bad, cachectic, characterless, cheesy, delicate, Dickey, dicky, dim, Dotty, enervate, faint, fainting, feeble, flabby, flaccid, gone, ill-conditioned, impaired, indolent, inferior, insubstantial, knock kneed, lame, lamentable, languid, languorous, lax, lean, low, meager, meagre, mean, measly, milk and water, nerveless, pale, pimping, pithless, poky, poor, puny, queasy, reckling, remiss, remote, rotten, rundown, scraggy, scrannel, scrawny, scrofulous, seared, shoddy, skinny, slack, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, soft, spare, squeamish, tender, thin, third rate, Twiggy, weak, weakly, woozy). (various references)

Arabic		‏مقعد (bench, chair, couch, cripple, crippled, disable, incapacitated, invalid, lame, seat, settee, sofa, stool), ‏متردد (ambivalent, chary, double-minded, doubtful, dubious, faint-hearted, faltering, flickering, haunting, hesitant, hesitating, indecisive, irresolute, remittent, stammerer, tentative, timid, uncertain, undecided, unsettled, vacillating, wavering), ‏واهن (atonal, atonic, crazy, doddery, effete, enervate, feeble, flagging, impotent, invalidity, lackadaisical, languid, languorous, lower, nerveless, powerless, prostrate, rusty, shrivelled, sickly, sluggish, spiritless, stunted, tender, weak, weakling, weakly, wimp), ‏غير مستقر (inconstant, insecure, labile, migrant, skittish, tottering, uneasy, unsettled, unstable, unsteady), ‏غير حازم (irresolute, undetermined), ‏عاجز (decrepit, disabled, effete, feckless, helpless, incapable, incompetent, ineffective, inert, invalid, paralysed, paralyzed, poor, powerless, unable), ‏ضعيف (atonic, cold, crazy, deficient, delicate, dim, emaciated, enervate, faint, feckless, feeble, flabby, flagging, fragile, frail, haggard, helpless, impotent, inaudible, invertebrate, lame, languid, languorous, lank, lean, limp, little, low, lower, nerveless, pale, powered, powerless, puny, rickety, run down, scant, scrawny, slender, slight, slim, small, soft, softy, streaked, supine, tenuous, thin, thready, toothless, unsubstantial, wan, weak, weakened, weakling, weakly, wimp, wishy washy). (various references)

Bulgarian		колеблив (backward, doubtful, dubious, faltering, fitful, halting, hesitant, hesitating, irresolute, labile, pendulous, queasy, rickety, rocky, tardy, tentative, vacillating, versatile, wavering, wobbly, yo-yo), неустойчив (insecure, labile, non-persistent, rickety, top heavy, transient, unballasted, unequable, unstable, unsteady, waggly, weak), нетраен (adjective, corruptible, passing, perishable, spoilable, weak), немощен (bedridden, decrepit, doddered, faint, frail, shaky, unable), лабилен (labile), безсилен (emasculate, forceless, impotent, nerveless). (various references)

Chinese		不牢固. (various references)

Czech		váhavý (faltering, half hearted, hesitant, irresolute, loath, tentative, uncertain), nepevný (limp, unsettled, unsteady), nemohoucí (impotent), neduživý (sickly, weak, weedy). (various references)

Danish		svagelig (decrepit, feeble, weak). (various references)

Dutch		verminkt (crippled), gebrekkig (crippled, disabled). (various references)

Esperanto		kripla (crippled). (various references)

Faeroese		avlamin (crippled). (various references)

Farsi		ناتوان (Impotent, Incapable, Invalid, Unable), نااستوار (Unstable), علیل (Bedridden, Doddering, Invalid), ضعیف (Anemic, Atonic, Languid, Lean, Light, Puny, Pusillanimous, Rickety, Sappy, Shaky, Slack, Slender, Weak), رنجور (Ill, Painful, Wretched). (various references)

Finnish		sairaalloinen (ailing, pathologic, pathological, sickly), heikko (delicate, faint, feeble, frail, poor, slight, weak). (various references)

French		infirme (invalid). (various references)

German		gebrechlich (crippled, decayed, decrepit, dilapidated, feeble, fragile, frail, lapsed, rickety, weak). (various references)

Greek		ασταθήσ (choppy, erratic, inconstant, top heavy, tottering, tottery, unstable, unsteady, wabbly), ασθενήσ (ailing, feckless, ill, patient, piping, pithless, sick, unwell), ανάπηροσ (amputee, cripple, disabled). (various references)

Hebrew		מו�'בל עקב מחל�", חלוש (effete, exhausted, feeble, frail, soft, weakly), חול�" (ill, inmate, patient, sick, unfit, unwell), � �"ו�" (migration, unstable, unsteady, vagabondage, wandering). (various references)

Hungarian		gyenge (anaemic, anemic, crazy, decrepit, Dickey, dicky, dim, extenuate, faint, feckless, feeble, flabby, flimsy, fragile, frail, impotent, inferior, light, low, meagre, mild, nerveless, palsied, reedy, scrannel, semi-invalid, sickly, slack, slender, slight, small voice, soft, weak, weakly). (various references)

Italian		irresoluto (irresolute), infermo (indisposed, invalid), debole (dim, failing, faint, feeble, feebleminded, flimsy, frail, gone, helpless, impotent, light, nerveless, pale, powerless, strengthless, tenuous, thin, unsound, weak, weak point, weakly). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		薄志弱行 (infirm of purpose and lacking in decision). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		はくしじゃっ�"う (infirm of purpose and lacking in decision). (various references)

Korean		허약한 (fragile). (various references)

Manx		neuhickyr (apocryphal, chancy, debatable, fluky, indefinite, insecure, loose, precarious, uncertain), neufondagh (incapable, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficient, insolvent, insubstantial, insufficient, unbusinesslike), lag-layntagh (indisposed, invalid), corragh (chequered, chequered as career, crazy, eccentric, erratic, falling, hectic, irresolute, jerry-built, rocky place, sensitive, skittish, troubled, troubled of period, unbalanced, unbalanced of mind, uneven, uneven as temper, wobbly), asslayntagh (bad health, diseased, invalid, sick, sick person). (various references)

Norwegian		svakelig. (various references)

Pig Latin		infirmay

Portuguese		fraco (adynamic, crank, deedless, defective, enervate, failing, faint, feckless, feeble minded, flabby, flaccid, flimsy, frail, lank, light, little, low, milk and water, pimping, pony, puny, reckling, scrannel, shaky, sickly, slight, spineless, spiritless, watery, weak, weak-kneed, weakly, wishy washy). (various references)

Romanian		infirma (disaffirm, invalidate, quash, refute), slab de înger (white livered), plãpând (delicate, dicky, dull, feeble, frail, puny, slight, tender, weak), neputincios (helpless, impotent, impuissant, incapable, limp, nerveless, palsied, shiftless, silly, slight), lipsit de voinţã, lipsit de vlagã, firav (delicate, feeble, frail, puny, slender, weak), cu caracter slab, becisnic (delicate, frail, impotent, sickly, weakly). (various references)

Russian		немощный. (various references)

Scottish		breóite. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		slab (dickey, dicky, feckless, feeble, flabby, frail, languid, languorous, low, meager, meagre, nerveless, poor, powerless, punk, remote, short, sickly, slim, tenuous, thin, trick, undernourished, unlikely, washy, weak), nemoćan (feckless, feeble, powerless, sick, unable, weak). (various references)

Spanish		enfermizo (delicate, sick, sickish, sickly, unhealthy, weakling), enclenque (weakly), decrépito (decayed, decrepit, dilapidated, feeble, lapsed, rickety, weak, worn out), casa de los enfermos. (various references)

Swedish		skröplig (decrepit, frail), sjuklig (ailing, diseased, distempered, invalid, morbid, pathological, sickly, unhealthy, unsound, valetudinarian, valetudinary, wan), orkeslös (decrepit), klen (cachectic, delicate, faint, feeble, frail, light, low, poorly, scrubby, slight, valetudinarian, valetudinary, weak). (various references)

Turkish		sakat (cripple, crippled, crock, defective, disabled, funny, game, gammy, handicapped, incapable of working, invalid, lame, lame duck, malformed, wonky), kararsız (ambivalent, astatic, baffling, changeable, changeful, double-minded, doubtful, dubious, erratic, faltering, fickle, flighty, fluctuating, flukey, fluky, fluxional, halting, hazy, hesitant, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, infirm of purpose, irresolute, precarious, restless, shilly shally, uncertain, uncommitted, undecided, undetermined, unresolved, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, vacillating, vagabond, vague, wayward, weak-kneed), hastalıklı (Dickey, dicky, diseased, morbid, sickly, unwholesome, valetudinarian, valetudinary, weakly), halsiz (drooping, droopy, exhausted, faint, groggy, languid, languorous, prostrate, run down, senile, sluggish, very tired, washy, weak, weakly, wonky). (various references)

Ukranian		слабовільний (feeble minded, weak-minded), ослабляти (abate, allay, attenuate, deaden, debilitate, depress, emasculate, enfeeble, extenuate, impair, let down, loosen, lower, overcome, relax, slack, slacken, subdue, unbind, water, weaken), нестійкий (astatic, broken, catching, chancy, dicky, drunk, erratic, groggy, labile, non-persistent, non-resistant, quaky, sliding, staggering, tickle, top heavy, unbalanced, unfixed, unsettled, unsteady, wambly, yielding), немічний (unable). (various references)

Vietnamese		yếu đuối (impotent, marrowless, molly-coddle, puny, spiritless, unmanly, weak), không cương quyết không kiên định, hom hem yếu ớt; nhu nhược, ốm yếu (broken-down, queerish, unhealthy, weakly). (various references)

Welsh		methedig (decrepit, disabled), cymhercyn (limping). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	aegros, consenesco, decrepiti, decrepitus, infirma, infirmam, infirmes, infirmi, infirmior, infirmiora, infirmiori, infirmis, infirmo, infirmos, infirmum, infirmus, infitians, invalida, invalidi, invalidum, invalidus, phesse. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "infirm": infirmaries, infirmary, infirmed, infirming, infirmities, infirmity, infirmly, infirms. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Infirm" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: cinefilm, inferim, inferm, infir, infirma, inim, inir, injim. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "infirm" (pronounced i'nfer"m)
4	-n f er" m	confirm, reconfirm.
3	-f er" m	affirm, firm, reaffirm.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "f-i-i-m-n-r"
	-2 letters: firm, firn, mini, miri.
	-3 letters: fin, fir, mir, nim, rif, rim, rin.
	-4 letters: if, in, mi.
	Words containing the letters "f-i-i-m-n-r"
	+1 letter: firming, infirms.
	+2 letters: infirmed, infirmly, misinfer, rifampin.
	+3 letters: affirming, firemanic, infirmary, infirming, infirmity, informing, interfirm, magnifier, misfiring, misinfers, misinform, ramifying, refilming, rifampins.
	+4 letters: confirming, disconfirm, foreignism, magnifiers, metrifying, micrifying, microfungi, misforming, misframing, misinforms, moniliform, mortifying, rifampicin, ruffianism, unfamiliar, uniforming, uniformity.
	+5 letters: affirmation, californium, disconfirms, fimbriation, firebombing, foraminifer, foreignisms, formalising, formalizing, formfitting, formulizing, freneticism, indemnifier, infirmaries, infirmities, infomercial, informality, informatics, information, informative, interfamily, misgrafting, misinferred, misinformed, omnifarious, reaffirming, reinforming, remodifying, rifampicins, ruffianisms, slipforming.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.