imbecile

plural imbeciles

1. obsoleteA person with limited mental capacity who can perform tasks and think only like a young child, in medical circles meaning a person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal five- to seven-year-old child.

   It is an offence for a man to have unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman whom he knows to be an idiot or imbecile.

   1956, Parliament of the United Kingdom, “Part I, section 7”, in Sexual Offences Act 1956, page 2

2. derogatoryA fool, an idiot.

   VLADIMIR: Because he wouldn't save them. / ESTRAGON: From hell? / VLADIMIR: Imbecile! From death.

   1954, Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, →ISBN, page 5

   1 more example

   “A rat picked up a drink can and threw it at me?” yelled Mr Big. “A big rat, guv’nor? One of them super-rats?” suggested Thumbs. “It landed on my head, you imbecile!”

   2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN

comparative more imbecile · superlative most imbecile

1. datedDestitute of strength, whether of body or mind; feeble; impotent; especially, mentally weak.

   hospitals for the imbecile and insane

   1 more example

   And then that imbecile crowd down on the deck started their little fun, and I could see nothing more for smoke.

   1899 April, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MII, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part III (Conclusion), page 647