N. impotence, inability, disability, disablement, impuissance, imbecility, incapacity, incapability, inaptitude, ineptitude, incompetence, unproductivity, indocility, invalidity, disqualification, inefficiency, wastefulness, telum imbelle, brutum fulmen, blank, blank cartridge, flash in the pan, vox et proeterea nihil, dead letter, bit of waste paper, dummy, paper tiger, quaker gun, inefficacy, failure, helplessness, prostration, paralysis, palsy, apoplexy, syncope, sideration|, deliquium|, collapse, exhaustion, softening of the brain, inanition, emasculation, orchiotomy, orchotomy, cripple, old woman, muff, powder puff, creampuff, pussycat, wimp, mollycoddle, eunuch

V. be impotent, not have a leg to stand on, vouloir rompre l'anguille au genou, vouloir prendre la lune avec les dents, collapse, faint, swoon, fall into a swoon, drop, go by the board, go by the wayside, go up in smoke, end in smoke, render powerless, deprive of power, disable, disenable, disarm, incapacitate, disqualify, unfit, invalidate, deaden, cramp, tie the hands, double up, prostrate, paralyze, muzzle, cripple, becripple, maim, lame, hamstring, draw the teeth of, throttle, strangle, garrotte, garrote, ratten, silence, sprain, clip the wings of, put hors de combat, spike the guns, take the wind out of one's sails, scotch the snake, put a spoke in one's wheel, break the neck, break the back, unhinge, unfit, put out of gear, unman, unnerve, enervate, emasculate, castrate, geld, alter, neuter, sterilize, fix, shatter, exhaust, weaken

Adj. powerless, impotent, unable, incapable, incompetent, inefficient, ineffective, inept, unfit, unfitted, unqualified, disqualified, unendowed, inapt, unapt, crippled, disabled, armless, harmless, unarmed, weaponless, defenseless, sine ictu, unfortified, indefensible, vincible, pregnable, untenable, paralytic, paralyzed, palsied, imbecile, nerveless, sinewless, marrowless, pithless, lustless, emasculate, disjointed, out of joint, out of gear, unnerved, unhinged, water-logged, on one's beam ends, rudderless, laid on one's back, done up, dead beat, exhausted, shattered, demoralized, graveled, helpless, unfriended, fatherless, without a leg to stand on, hors de combat, laid on the shelf, null and void, nugatory, inoperative, good for nothing, ineffectual, inadequate, inefficacious

Phr. der kranke mann, "desirous still but impotent to rise", the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

N. {ant 478} confutation, refutation, answer, complete answer, disproof, conviction, redargution, invalidation, exposure, exposition, clincher, retort, reductio ad absurdum, knock down argument, tu quoque argument, sockdolager *, correction, dissuasion

V. confute, refute, disprove, parry, negative, controvert, rebut, confound, disconfirm, redargue, expose, show the fallacy of, defeat, demolish, break, overthrow, overturn scatter to the winds, explode, invalidate, silence, put to silence, reduce to silence, clinch an argument, clinch a question, give one a setdown, stop the mouth, shut up, have, have on the hip, not leave a leg to stand on, cut the ground from under one's feet, be confuted &c, fail, expose one's weak point, show one's weak point, counter evidence

Adj. confuting, confuted, &c. v, capable of refutation, refutable, confutable, defeasible, contravene (counter evidence) 468, condemned on one's own showing, condemned out of one's own mouth

Phr. the argument falls to the ground, cadit quaestio, it does not hold water, "suo sibi gladio hunc jugulo", his argument was demolished by new evidence

N. undueness, malum # prohibitum, impropriety, illegality, falseness, emptiness of title, invalidity of title, illegitimacy, loss of right, disfranchisement, forfeiture, usurpation, tort, violation, breach, encroachment, presumption, assumption, seizure, stretch, exaction, imposition, lion's share, usurper, pretender

V. be undue, not be due, infringe, encroach, trench on, exact, arrogate, arrogate to oneself, give an inch and take an ell, stretch a point, strain a point, usurp, violate, do violence to, disfranchise, disentitle, disqualify, invalidate, relax, misbehave, misbecome

Adj. undue, unlawful, unconstitutional, illicit, unauthorized, unwarranted, disallowed, unallowed, unsanctioned, unjustified, unentitled, disentitled, unqualified, disqualified, unprivileged, unchartered, illegitimate, bastard, spurious, supposititious, false, usurped, tortious, undeserved, unmerited, unearned, unfulfilled, forfeited, disfranchised, improper, unmeet, unfit, unbefitting, unseemly, unbecoming, misbecoming, seemless, contra bonos mores, not the thing, out of the question, not to be thought of, preposterous, pretentious, would-be

Phr. filius nullius