Adjacent Words

Incontinence definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INCON'TINENCE
INCON'TINENCY, n. [L. incontinentia. See Continence.]
1. Want of restraint of the passions or appetites; free or uncontrolled indulgence of the passions or appetites, as of anger.
2. Want of restraint of the sexual appetite; free or illegal indulgence of lust; lewdness; used of either sex, but appropriately of the male sex. Incontinence in men is the same as unchastity in women.
3. Among physicians, the inability of any of the animal organs to restrain discharges of their contents, so that the discharges are involuntary; Also, the involuntary discharge itself; as an incontinence of urine in diabetes.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: involuntary urination or defecation [syn: incontinence, incontinency]
2: indiscipline with regard to sensuous pleasures [syn: dissoluteness, incontinence, self-gratification]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century the quality or state of being incontinent: as a. failure to restrain sexual appetite ; unchastity b. inability of the body to control the evacuative functions of urination or defecation

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Incontinence In*con"ti*nence, Incontinency In*con"ti*nen*cy, n. [L. incontinentia: cf. F. incontinence.] 1. Incapacity to hold; hence, incapacity to hold back or restrain; the quality or state of being incontinent; want of continence; failure to restrain the passions or appetites; indulgence of lust; lewdness. That Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. --1 Cor. vii. 5. From the rash hand of bold incontinence. --Milton. 2. (Med.) The inability of any of the animal organs to restrain the natural evacuations, so that the discharges are involuntary; as, incontinence of urine.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Incontinence is the inability to prevent urine or faeces coming out of your body. Incontinence is not just a condition of old age.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Non-retention, inability to retain. 2. Lewdness, lasciviousness, indulgence of lust.

Moby Thesaurus

abandon, abandonment, acquisitiveness, avarice, avariciousness, avidity, avidness, boundlessness, carpe diem, conspicuous consumption, covetousness, crapulence, crapulency, crapulousness, cupidity, dissipation, drunkenness, egregiousness, enormousness, exaggeration, excess, excessiveness, exorbitance, exorbitancy, extravagance, extravagancy, extreme, extremes, extremism, extremity, fabulousness, frenzy of desire, fury of desire, giantism, gigantism, gluttony, grasping, graspingness, greed, greediness, hoggishness, hyperbole, hypertrophy, immoderacy, immoderateness, immoderation, indiscipline, indulgence, inordinacy, inordinance, inordinate desire, inordinateness, insatiability, insatiable desire, intemperance, intemperateness, irrepressibility, itching palm, lavishness, laxness, leaking purse, licentiousness, loose purse strings, lust, monstrousness, nimiety, noncoercion, nonintimidation, outrageousness, overdevelopment, overdoing, overgenerosity, overgenerousness, overgreatness, overgreediness, overgrowth, overindulgence, overlargeness, overliberality, overmuch, overmuchness, permissiveness, piggishness, pound-foolishness, prodigality, profligacy, profuseness, profusion, radicalism, rapaciousness, rapacity, ravenousness, reckless expenditure, reckless spending, riotousness, self-indulgence, sordidness, squandering, squandermania, swinishness, too much, too-muchness, unconscionableness, unconstraint, uncontinence, uncontrol, undueness, uninhibitedness, unreasonableness, unreserve, unrestrainedness, unrestraint, unruliness, unstrictness, voraciousness, voracity, wantonness, waste, wastefulness, wildness, wolfishness