infirm

CEFRC1

/ɪnˈfɜːm/

adjective · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Weak or ill, especially because of age.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Frail; unstable; insecure.

Examples

  • The hospital provides care for elderly and infirm patients.

  • My father is very infirm.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Irresolute; weak of mind or will.

  2. Weak or ill, not in good health.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To contradict, to provide proof that something is not.

More examples

In context

  • Tom is old and infirm.

  • He was infirm of body but still keen of mind, and though it looked like he couldn't walk across the room, he crushed me in debate.

  • The thought is that you see an episode of observation, experiment, or reasoning as confirming or infirming a hypothesis depending on whether the probability of it being correct increases or decreases during the episode.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The hospital volunteer assisted the blank patient who was too weak to stand up alone.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

* The noun is from Middle English infirme, from Latin infirmus (“weak, feeble”). * The verb is from Latin īnfirmāre, from īnfirmus (“sick, weak, infirm”) + -ō.