Disability definitions

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DISABILITY, n. [from disable.]
1. Want of competent natural or bodily power, strength or ability; weakness; impotence; as disability arising from infirmity or broken limbs.
2. Want of competent intellectual power or strength of mind; incapacity; as the disability of a deranged person to reason or to make contracts.
3. Want of competent means or instruments. [In this sense, inability is generally used.]
4. Want of legal qualifications; incapacity; as a disability to inherit an estate, when the ancestor has been attainted. [In this sense, it has a plural.]
Disability differs from inability, in denoting deprivation of ability; whereas inability denotes destitution of ability, either by deprivation or otherwise.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the condition of being unable to perform as a consequence of physical or mental unfitness; "reading disability"; "hearing impairment" [syn: disability, disablement, handicap, impairment]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1557 1. a. the condition of being disabled b. inability to pursue an occupation because of a physical or mental impairment; also a program providing financial support to one affected by disability <went on disability after the injury> 2. lack of legal qualification to do something 3. a disqualification, restriction, or disadvantage

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 physical incapacity, either congenital or caused by injury, disease, etc. 2 a lack of some asset, quality, or attribute, that prevents one's doing something. 3 a legal disqualification.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Disability Dis`a*bil"i*ty, n.; pl. Disabilities. 1. State of being disabled; deprivation or want of ability; absence of competent physical, intellectual, or moral power, means, fitness, and the like. Grossest faults, or disabilities to perform what was covenanted. --Milton. Chatham refused to see him, pleading his disability. --Bancroft. 2. Want of legal qualification to do a thing; legal incapacity or incompetency. The disabilities of idiocy, infancy, and coverture. --Abbott. Syn: Weakness; inability; incompetence; impotence; incapacity; incompetency; disqualification. Usage: -- Disability, Inability. Inability is an inherent want of power to perform the thing in question; disability arises from some deprivation or loss of the needed competency. One who becomes deranged is under a disability of holding his estate; and one who is made a judge, of deciding in his own case. A man may decline an office on account of his inability to discharge its duties; he may refuse to accept a trust or employment on account of some disability prevents him from entering into such engagements.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(disabilities) 1. A disability is a permanent injury, illness, or physical or mental condition that tends to restrict the way that someone can live their life. Facilities for people with disabilities are still insufficient. N-COUNT 2. Disability is the state of being disabled. Disability can make extra demands on financial resources.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Disqualification. 2. Inability, incapacity, incompetence, impotence, incapability.

Moby Thesaurus

abnormality, acute disease, affection, affliction, ailment, allergic disease, allergy, atrophy, bacterial disease, birth defect, blight, cardiovascular disease, chronic disease, circulatory disease, complaint, complication, condition, congenital defect, defect, deficiency disease, deformity, degenerative disease, detriment, disablement, disadvantage, disease, disorder, disqualification, distemper, drawback, endemic, endemic disease, endocrine disease, epidemic disease, functional disease, fungus disease, gastrointestinal disease, genetic disease, handicap, helplessness, hereditary disease, iatrogenic disease, illness, imbecility, impairment, impotence, inability, inadequacy, incapability, incapacitation, incapacity, incompetence, incompetency, indisposition, inefficiency, ineptitude, infancy, infectious disease, inferiority, infirmity, insufficiency, legal incapacity, malady, malaise, minority, morbidity, morbus, muscular disease, neurological disease, nutritional disease, occupational disease, organic disease, pandemic disease, pathological condition, pathology, plant disease, powerlessness, protozoan disease, psychosomatic disease, respiratory disease, rockiness, secondary disease, seediness, sickishness, sickness, signs, symptomatology, symptomology, symptoms, syndrome, the pip, unfitness, urogenital disease, virus disease, wardship, wasting disease, worm disease