Meanings
comparative more nonable-bodied · superlative most nonable-bodied
- alternativeAlternative form of non-able-bodied.
As the importance of a competent labor force increased, it became increasingly necessary to separate the able-bodied poor from the nonable-bodied.
1992, Peter Conrad, Joseph W. Schneider, Deviance and Medicalization: From Badness to Sickness, page 442 more examples
When individuals are positioned beyond "the norm", what constitutes a socially valued identity frequently clashes with experiences of the self — for example, as black, as indigenous, as non-Anglo, as working class, as lesbian/gay/bi- or transsexual, as nonable-bodied, as a single parent, as ill,as fat, and so forth.
2005, Helen O'Grady, Woman's Relationship with Herself: Gender, Foucault and TherapyThe distribution of food; the provision of security, shelter, education, child care, and medical care; indigenous interventions for mental and social ills and so forth from prehistory to the well-documented Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1601, which codified services for the able-bodied and nonable-bodied poor, are precursors and provided a template for human services in the early United States.
2014, Linwood H. Cousins, Encyclopedia of Human Services and Diversity
Cite this entry
nonable-bodied. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nonable-bodied
“nonable-bodied.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nonable-bodied. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nonable-bodied,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nonable-bodied.
Source: nonable-bodied on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.