incapacitate

/ɪnkəˈpæsɪˌteɪt/

Other forms: incapacitated; incapacitating; incapacitates

If you are incapacitated, you can’t do what you normally do, what you’re being asked to do — or perhaps, much of anything. To incapacitate someone is to cause him or her to be unable to function normally, like a bad cold that incapacitates you.

The verb incapacitate is related to the word capacity. Capacity comes from the Latin word capacitas, meaning “that can contain,” or how much something — brain, bucket or otherwise — can hold. The prefix in- reverses the meaning and when the suffix -ate is added, incapacitate means someone has been made unable to “contain” much — like attention, effort, or energy.

Definitions of incapacitate

1. verb

   make unable to perform a certain action
   synonyms: disable, disenable

   types:

   lay up

   disable or confine, as with an illness

   nobble

   disable by drugging

   pinion

   cut the wings off (of birds)

   confine, hold, restrain

   to close within bounds, limit or hold back from movement

   bind, tie down, tie up, truss

   secure with or as if with ropes

   fetter, shackle

   restrain with fetters

   enchain

   restrain or bind with chains

   pinion, shackle

   bind the arms of

   impound, pound

   place or shut up in a pound

   pound, pound up

   shut up or confine in any enclosure or within any bounds or limits

   fold, pen up

   confine in a fold, like sheep

   ground

   confine or restrict to the ground

   type of:

   alter, change, modify

   cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
2. verb

   injure permanently
   synonyms: disable, handicap, invalid

   types:

   hock

   disable by cutting the hock

   type of:

   injure, wound

   cause injuries or bodily harm to